Egerton Ryerson and education in Upper Canada

PROPERTY
RSON POLYTECHN1CAL INSTITUTE

Date Due

PROPERTY OF
RYERSON POLYTECHNICAL INSTITUTE

EGERTON RYERSON

AND

Education in Upper Canada

BY

J. HAROLD PUTMAN, B.A , D.Paed.,

Inspector of Public Schools, Ottawa, Ont.

(Formerly in charge of the Departments in Psychology and
English, Ottawa Normal School)

TORONTO

WILLIAM BRIGGS
1Q12

Copyright. Canada. 1912. by
WILLIAM BRIGGS

PREFACE

THE) object of this volume is to give a suc
cinct idea of the nature and history of our
Ontario School Legislation. This legislation is
so bound up with the name of Egerton Ryerson
that to give its history is to relate the work of
his life.

It would be useless to attempt to show how
our school legislation developed under Respon
sible Government without some understanding
of its history previous to the time of Ryerson.
I have, therefore, devoted three chapters to a
brief account of education in Upper Canada
previous to 1844.

No attempt has been made to give the history
of our schools since Ryerson s retirement,
partly because no radical changes have been
made, and partly because it would involve
criticism of statesmen and teachers who are
still actively engaged in work. Nor has any
attempt been made to trace the history of Uni
versity education after 1845. To do so would

3

Preface

require a complete volume. But, as University
education prior to 1844 was so closely con
nected with Common and Grammar Schools, it
seemed necessary, up to a certain point, to trace
the course of all three together.

The introductory chapter on the biography
of Ryerson is only indirectly connected with
the other chapters, and may be omitted by the
reader who has no interest in the man himself.

It is hoped that this volume may encourage
teachers in service and teachers in training to
acquire a fuller knowledge of their own educa
tional institutions.

THE AUTHOR.
OTTAWA, July ist, 1912.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PACK

I. Biographical 7

II. Education in Upper Canada from 1783 to

1844 33

III. Education in Upper Canada from 1783 to

1844 (Continued) 58

IV. Education in Upper Canada from 1783 to

1844 (Continued) - 83

V. Ryerson s First Report on a System of Ele
mentary Instruction - no

VI. Ryerson s School Bill of 1846 123

VII. The Ryerson Bill of 1850 144

VIII. Ryerson and Separate Schools - - 173

IX. Ryerson and Grammar Schools - 204

X. Ryerson and the Training of Teachers 232

XI. Ryerson School Bill of 1871 257

XII. Conclusion - 264

Bibliography - 269

Egerton Ryerson and Education
in Upper Canada

CHAPTER I.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

EGERTON RYERSON was born in 1803, in the
township of Charlotteville, now a part of the
county of Norfolk. His father was a United
Empire Loyalist who had held some command
in a volunteer regiment of New Jersey. After
the Revolution the elder Ryerson settled first in
New Brunswick, coming later to Upper Can
ada, where he took up land and became a
pioneer farmer. The young Ryersons, of
whom there were several, took their full share
in the laborious farm work, and Egerton seems
to have prided himself upon his physical
strength and his skill in all farm operations.

He received such an education as was af
forded by the indifferent Grammar School of
the London District, supplemented by the read
ing of whatever books he could secure.

At an early age he was strongly drawn to
ward that militant Christianity preached by the

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

early Methodist Circuit Riders, and at the age
of eighteen joined the Methodist Society. This
step created an estrangement between Ryerson
and his father, who already had two sons in the
Methodist ministry. Ryerson left home and
became usher in the London District Grammar
School, where he remained two years, when his
father sent for him to come home. After some
further farming experience, the young man
went to Hamilton to attend the Gore District
Grammar School. He was already thinking
of becoming a Methodist preacher, and wished
to prepare himself by a further course of study.
During his stay in Hamilton under the instruc
tion of John Law, he worked so eagerly at
Latin and Greek that he fell ill of a fever
which nearly ended his career.

When barely twenty-two years of age he
decided to travel as a Methodist missionary.

In a letter written about this time to his
brother, the Rev. George Ryerson, we get a
glimpse of the young preacher s ideas upon
the preparation of sermons. " On my leisure
days I read from ten to twenty verses of Greek
a day besides reading history, the Scriptures,
and the best works on practical divinity, among
which Chalmers has decidedly the preference
in my mind both for piety and depth of thought.
These two last studies employ the greatest part
of my time. My preaching is altogether orig
inal. I endeavour to collect as many ideas from

8

Biographical

every source as I can; but I do not copy the
expression of anyone, for I do detest seeing
blooming flowers in dead men s hands. I think
it my duty and I try to get a general knowledge
and view of any subject that I discuss before
hand; but not unfrequently I have tried to
preach with only a few minutes previous re
flection."*

After being received into the Methodist con
nection as a probationer, Ryerson was assigned
a charge on Yonge St., which embraced the
town of York and several adjacent townships.
It took four weeks on horseback and on foot
over almost impassable roads to complete the
circuit. During this time the probationer was
expected to conduct from twenty-five to thirty-
five services. The accommodation furnished
by the pioneers was of the rudest kind, but the
people gave the travelling preacher a hearty
welcome. Young Ryerson was acquainting
himself with conditions in Upper Canada at
first hand by living among the people. At a
later time, when the opportunity came, he made
use of his intimate knowledge to secure for
these people the advantages of better schools.

During this first year of his missionary
ministry, Ryerson was drawn into the Clergy
Reserves controversy. The Methodist Society
in Upper Canada was an offshoot of that body

* See " Story of My Life," by Ryerson, edited by
Hodgins, page 42.

9

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

in the United States. This connection had
come about in a very natural way. Upper
Canada was largely settled by United Empire
Loyalists. The Methodist circuit-riders natur
ally followed their people into the wilds of
Upper Canada. In many districts no religious
services of any kind were held except those of
the Methodists.

In May, 1826, a pamphlet was published,
being a sermon preached by Archdeacon
Strachan, of York, on the occasion of the death
of the Bishop of Quebec. This pamphlet con
tained an historical sketch of the rise and pro
gress of the Anglican Church in Canada. The
claim was made that the Anglican Church was
by law the Established Church of Upper Can
ada. The Methodists were singled out and
held up to ridicule. They were represented as
American and disloyal. Their preachers were
declared to be ignorant and spreaders of sedi
tion, and the Imperial Parliament was peti
tioned to grant 300,000 a year to the Anglican
Church in Canada to enable it to maintain the
loyalty of Upper Canada to Britain.

To Ryerson, the son of a Loyalist, this was
more than could be borne, and he immediately
crossed swords with the Anglican prelate by
writing a defence of Methodism and calling
into question the exclusive demands made by
Strachan on behalf of the Anglicans. The con
test waxed warm and then hot. The whole

10

Biographical

country was convulsed. Within four years the
Legislature of Upper Canada passed Acts
allowing the various religious denominations
to hold lands for churches, parsonages, and
burying-grounds, and also allowing their minis
ters to solemnize marriages. Besides these
concessions, the Legislative Assembly was
forced by public opinion to petition the Im
perial Parliament against the claims of the
Anglican Church to be an Established Church
in Canada and to a monopoly of the Clergy
Reserves.

During his second year in the ministry,
Ryerson spent part of his time on a mission to
the Chippewa Indians on the Credit River.
While there, he showed himself to be very
practical. He encouraged the Indians to build
better houses and to clear and cultivate the
land.* "After having collected the means
necessary to build the house of worship and
schoolhouse, I showed the Indians how to en
close and make gates for their gardens.
Between daylight and sunrise I called out four
of the Indians in succession and showed them
how, and worked with them, to clear and fence
in, and plow and plant their first wheat and
corn fields. In the afternoon I called out the
schoolboys to go with me and cut and pile and
burn the underbrush in and around the village.

* See " Story of My Life," by Egerton Ryerson, edited
by Hodgins, page 60.

II

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

The little fellows worked with great glee as
long as I worked with them, but soon began to
play when I left them."

A letter written by Rev. William Ryerson
to his brother, the Rev. George Ryerson, on
March 8th, 1827, after a visit to the Indian
Mission, shows Egerton Ryerson s practical
nature and incidentally gives us his method of
instruction. " I visited Egerton at the Credit
last week . . . They have about forty pupils on
the list, but there were only thirty present.
The rest were absent making sugar . . . Their
progress in spelling, reading, and writing, is
astonishing, but especially in writing, which
certainly exceeds anything I ever saw. When
I was there they were fencing the lots in the
village in a very neat, substantial manner. On
my arrival at the Mission I found Egerton,
about half a mile from the village, stripped to
the shirt and pantaloons, clearing land with
between twelve and twenty of the little Indian
boys, who were all engaged in chopping and
picking up the brush."*

At the Methodist Conference of 1827, Ryer
son was sent to the Cobourg Circuit. During
his term there he was again drawn into a
controversy with Dr. Strachan, who sent to the
Imperial Parliament an Ecclesiastical Chart,
purporting to give an account of religion in
Upper Canada. Ryerson claimed that this

* See " Story of My Life," page 69.

12

Biographical

chart contained many false statements and that
it was peculiarly unfair to the Methodists. The
real point at issue was whether the Anglican
Church was to become the Established Church
of Upper Canada.

In 1828, Ryerson was appointed to the
Hamilton and Ancaster Circuit, which reached
from within five miles of Brantford to Stoney
Creek. On September loth, 1828, he married
Hannah Aikman, of Hamilton.*

The Methodist Conference of 1829 deter
mined to establish an official newspaper to be
known as The Christian Guardian. Ryerson
was elected as the first editor and was sent to
New York to procure the plant. The paper
started with a circulation of 500, which in
three years was increased to some 3,000. Be
sides defending Methodist principles and insti
tutions, the paper made a strong stand for civil
liberty, temperance, education, and missionary
work. It soon came to be looked upon as one
of the leading journals of Upper Canada.
Ryerson gave up the position of editor in 1832,
and the following year made a trip to England
to negotiate a union between the Canadian
Methodist Conference and the Wesleyan Con
ference of England. The union was con
summated. Ryerson returned to Canada and
was re-elected editor of the Guardian.

* Died in 1832. In 1833, Ryerson married Mary Arm
strong, of Toronto.

13

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

While in England, he had interviews with
Earl Ripon, Lord Stanley and other public
men, to whom he gave valuable information
concerning Canadian affairs, especially those
connected with the vexed question of the status
of the Anglican Church.

On his return to Canada, in 1833, Ryerson
published in the Guardian " Impressions Made
by My Late Visit to England." In this article
he gave his estimate of Tories, Whigs, and
Radicals. He saw much to admire in the
moderate Tories, little to praise in the Whigs,
and much to condemn in the Radicals. His
strictures on the latter called down upon him
the wrath and invective of William Lyon Mac
kenzie. To some extent Ryerson s articles led
the constitutional reformers in Upper Canada
to separate themselves from those reformers
who were prepared to establish a republican
form of government in order to secure equal
political and civil rights. To many of his old
friends it seemed that Ryerson had given up
championing liberty and had become a Tory.
Many were ready to accuse him of self-seeking
in his desire to conciliate the party of privilege.
One reverend brother,* writing to him, says :
I can only account for your strange and un-
Ryersonian conduct and advice on one prin
ciple that there is something ahead which

* Rev. Jas. Evans, of Niagara District. See part of letter
in " Story of My Life," page 131.

14

Biographical

you, through your superior political spy-glass,
have discovered and thus shape your course,
while we landlubbers, short-sighted as we are,
have not even heard of it." Hundreds of sub
scribers gave up the Guardian as a protest
against the views of its editor, but as the crisis
approached which culminated in the Rebellion
of 37 and 38, the tide of public opinion turned
in Ryerson s favour.

In 1835, Ryerson gave up the Guardian and
took a church at Kingston. Scarcely was he
settled when he undertook a second visit to
England. The Methodists had, in 1832, laid
the corner-stone of the Upper Canada Academy
at Cobourg. They had no charter, although an
unsuccessful attempt had been made to have
the Trustee Board incorporated by the Legis
lature of Upper Canada. Extensive buildings
were under way and the trustees were in finan
cial difficulties. Ryerson was sent to England
to beg subscriptions and also to attempt to
secure a Royal Charter. The work was dis
tasteful to him, but he persevered, and after
more than a year and six months spent in Eng
land he accomplished three ends. He secured
enough money in subscriptions to relieve the
most pressing immediate needs of the Trustee
Board. He secured an order from the Colonial
Secretary directed to the Governor of Upper
Canada, authorizing him to pay to the Upper
Canada Academy, from the unappropriated

15

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

revenues of the Crown, the sum of 4,000.*
Last, and most important, he secured a Royal
Charter, although up to that time no such
charter had ever been issued to any religious
body except the Established Church. To Ryer
son, the visit to England was of prime im
portance. It gave him a broadened view of
British institutions and English public men.
It gave him a political experience that was of
great value to him in later years. It gave him
an opportunity to appeal to his fellow men
upon the subject of education and educational
institutions.

While in England, Ryerson contributed a
series of letters to the London Times on Cana
dian affairs. There was a prevalent feeling in
England that a very large part of the Upper
Canadian people was determined upon a re
publican form of government. Ryerson s
letters did something to remove this impression.

After the Rebellion of 1837 was crushed,
the constitutional reform party was apparently
without any influence. It seemed that the
Family Compact oligarchy would have every
thing in their own hands. Prospects for
equality of civil and religious liberty were not
bright, and it is significant of the Methodists
appreciation of Ryerson s ability that they
immediately planned to make him again editor

* Later, in 1837, Ryerson secured this money only after
a petition to the Legislature.

16

Biographical

of the Guardian. His brother John, writing
to him in March, 1838, said: "It is a great
blessing that Mackenzie and radicalism are
down, but we are in imminent danger of being
brought under the domination of a military
and high-church oligarchy which would be
equally bad, if not infinitely worse. Under the
blessing of Providence, there is one remedy and
only one : that is for you to take the editorship
of the Guardian again."*

Ryerson did take the position, and in his
first editorial in the Guardian of the nth July,
1838, says : " Notwithstanding the almost in
credible calumny which has in past years been
heaped upon me by antipodes-party-presses,
I still adhere to the principles and views upon
which I set out in 1826. I believe the endow
ment of the priesthood of any Church in the
Province to be an evil to that church. . . I
believe that the appropriation of the proceeds
of the Clergy Reserves to general educational
purposes will be the most satisfactory and ad
vantageous disposal of them that can be made.
In nothing is this Province so defective as in
the requisite available provisions for an effi
cient system of general education. Let the dis
tinctive character of that system be the union
of public and private effort ... To Government
influence will be spontaneously added the vari-

* See copy of letter in " Story of My Life," page 200.

17

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

ous and combined religious influences of the
country in the noble, statesmanlike and divine
work of raising up an elevated, intelligent, and
moral population."

Dr. Ryerson clearly saw that religion, poli
tics, and education could not at this period be
separated, and for the next two years he did
his utmost, through the Guardian, to prevent
the Anglican Church from securing undivided
possession of the Clergy Reserves. The diffi
culties of his task were increased by the fact
that there were in Canada several British
VVesleyan missionaries who were not un
willing to see an Anglican Establishment.
They were cleverly used by some of the
Anglicans and their friends to cause fer
ment and sow discord among the Methodists
in Canada. From 1838 until 1840, when he
finally gave up the editorship of the Guardian,
Ryerson fought strongly for equal religious
privileges for all the people of Upper Canada.
Nor were Ryerson s efforts in this direction
confined to the columns of the Guardian. He
addressed several communications to the new
Colonial Secretary, Lord Normanby.

Lord Durham and his successor, Lord
Sydenham, received the cordial support of
Ryerson in their efforts to give a constitutional
government to Canada. Largely through
Ryerson s suggestion there was issued at To
ronto, in 1841, the Monthly Review, which

18

Biographical

was to be a medium for disseminating the
liberal views of Sydenham. Ryerson wrote
the prospectus and contributed some articles.
Probably as a recognition for this work,
Sydenham sent him a draft for 100, which
he promptly returned.

In May, 1840, Ryerson paid a fraternal visit
to the American General Conference at Balti
more. At this time he fully purposed to take
a church in New York City for one or two
years. He even thought it quite possible that
he might make the United States his perman
ent home. On his return to Canada from the
Baltimore visit he was elected Secretary of
the Conference. Charges were made against
him by a British Wesleyan which determined
him to visit England. This visit led to a rup
ture between the Canadian and British Metho
dist Conferences. When Ryerson and his
brother returned to Canada, a special meeting
of the Canada Conference was convened to
consider the break with British Methodism.
The result was a rupture in the Canadian Wes
leyan Conference itself. Many blamed the Ryer-
sons for the quarrel with the English Confer
ence, and Egerton again thought seriously of
going to the United States or of withdrawing
from ministerial work. The truth seems to
be that Ryerson was more than a preacher. He
lived in stirring times, when the nascent ele
ments of constitutional government were in

19

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

process of crystallization. He unconsciously
felt that he must have a part in directing the
destinies of his native country. He saw
clearly that the Canadian Methodist Church
must ultimately be independent and that its
ministers ought not to adopt a policy dictated
to them by the English Conference, many
members of which were wholly ignorant of
Canadian conditions.

During the next two years, 1841 and
1842, Ryerson was in charge of the Adelaide
Street Church, Toronto. He seems to have
given himself up wholly to his pastoral work
and to have taken little active part in passing
events.

On the 2/th of August, 1841, Lord Syden-
ham signed a bill which made Upper Canada
Academy a college, with university powers.
The name was changed to Victoria College.
In October of the same year, Ryerson was
appointed the first principal of the new
college. He did not give up his church work
until June, 1842. On the 2ist of that month
he was formally installed in his new position.
On the 3rd of August the Wesleyan Univer
sity of Middletown, Conn., conferred upon
him the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

Lord Sydenham died in 1841. It seems
that shortly before his death he had some
communication with Ryerson regarding the
latter s appointment as Superintendent of

20

Biographical

Education for Upper Canada. Ryerson
claimed that the Governor actually promised
him the appointment but that there had never
been any official written record. Sydenham
was succeeded by Sir Charles Bagot, who in
May, 1842, made the Rev. Mr. Murray Super
intendent of Education. Sir Charles Bagot
died in May, 1843, an d was succeeded by Sir
Charles Metcalfe. It was a critical period in
the history of Canada. The people were sup
posed to be in possession of the enjoyment of
responsible government. But as a matter of
fact, very few had any definite ideas as to what
was meant by responsible government. Lord
Metcalfe refused to accept the advice of his
Council regarding an appointment. Instead of
resigning at once as a protest they attempted to
secure from him a promise that he would in
future accept their recommendations. He
refused. Later the leading members of the
Council resigned. Party feeling ran high, and
the Governor had few friends.

Ryerson had been upon familiar terms with
Lord Durham, Lord Sydenham, and Sir
Charles Bagot. He now had several communi
cations and one or more interviews with Lord
Metcalfe. He made direct and positive offers
of his services to the Governor. He then wrote
a series of nine letters in vindication of the
Governor s course. These letters caused much
excitement and won for Ryerson the lasting

21

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

enmity of the advanced Reform party, who
openly accused him of toadyism and of selling
his support to Lord Metcalfe in return for the
promise of office. Whatever may have been
the effect of Ryerson s letters, Lord Metcalfe s
party won a temporary victory and Ryerson
himself was appointed Superintendent of Edu
cation for Upper Canada in October, 1844.

To show how the political opponents of Lord
Metcalfe viewed Ryerson s appointment, the
circumstances connected with it and his fit
ness for the position of Superintendent, I
quote from the Toronto Globe, the editor of
which was an out-and-out opponent of Ryer
son and an unsparing critic of his early educa
tional legislation. In the Globe of May 28th,
1844, there appeared a letter signed " Junius,"
protesting against Ryerson s appointment. The
writer insinuates that Ryerson was won over
by receiving some notice from Lord Metcalfe,
and that the Governor hoped by winning over
Ryerson to win a united support from the
Methodists. He calls Ryerson a violent poli
tical partisan and taunts him with having only
a superficial education. He says : " Nor is it
flattering to the many learned men of the coun
try that one represented to be of slender attain
ments in a few common branches of English
education, and totally ignorant of mathematics
and classics, should be entrusted with the edu
cation of the country, many of whose youthful

22

Biographical

scholars have attained higher knowledge than
their chief."

In a Globe editorial of June 4th, 1844, in
commenting upon Ryerson s first letter in de
fence of Lord Metcalfe, the writer says : " If
the Rev. Mr. Ryerson s appearance in the poli
tical field is indecorous and uncalled for, the
manner in which he has begun his work is in
perfect keeping with that appearance. A more
presumptuous and egotistical exhibition from a
man of talents and education has never been
brought under the public eye. The first column
alone of his Address [preface to letters in de
fence of Lord Metcalfe] contains fifty repeti
tions of the little insignificant word /, to say
nothing of me and my . . . We may be per
mitted to express our utter astonishment, how
ever, to find a minister of the Gospel em
barking with so much eagerness in the sea of
politics."

That Ryerson had a very good understand
ing with Lord Metcalfe as to the position of
Superintendent of Education before writing
the famous letters is apparent to anyone who
reads the correspondence. That there was any
thing discreditable to either party in that under
standing has never been shown. On the con
trary, it seems quite certain that Ryerson
honestly believed the Governor was right. It
is certain he made out a strong case and likely
won many supporters for the Metcalfe party.

23

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

This was especially galling to the party who
called themselves Reformers, because they had
looked upon Ryerson as one of their cham
pions. But Ryerson never had been, and never
became, a mere party man. He fought for
great principles, and if up to 1844 he had
generally found himself with the Reformers,
it was because they were championing what
Ryerson believed to be the right.

To taunt him with being half-educated was
the mark of a small mind. Every man must
be judged according to the way he makes use
of his opportunities, and by such a standard no
man in Canadian public life has ever measured
higher than Egerton Ryerson. He may have
known " little Latin and less Greek," he may
have been wholly ignorant of the binomial
theorem, and he may not have been able to
write as smooth and graceful English as the
classical scholars of Oxford, but he knew that
thousands of boys and girls in the backwoods
of Upper Canada were growing up in ignor
ance; he knew that the secondary schools of
Upper Canada were scarcely more efficient than
they had been thirty years before, and he knew
that the country had ample resources to give
reasonable educational advantages to all. More
than this, he must have felt that, given reason
able freedom and support, he could in a short
time change the whole system of education.

24

Biographical

Dr. Ryerson, in accepting appointment,
stipulated that he should be allowed to make
a tour of Europe before taking up the active
duties of his office. He left Canada for
Europe in November, 1844, and returned
in December, 1845. He made an elab
orate report * based on personal investi
gation into the schools of Great Britain and
Ireland, France, Holland, Germany, Swit
zerland, and other European countries, besides
New York and the New England States. Per
haps the systems of Ireland, Germany, and
Massachusetts gave Ryerson more practical
suggestions than those of any other countries.
In Prussia he saw the advantages of trained
teachers and a strong central bureau of ad
ministration; in Ireland he saw a simple solu
tion of religious difficulties and a fine system
of national textbooks ; in Massachusetts he
saw an efficient system managed by popularly
elected boards of trustees.

During his absence Ryerson was again
attacked and held up to ridicule by the Globe.
In an editorial of April 29th, 1845,! we find the
following : " The vanity of the Deputy Super
intendent of Education demands fresh incense
at every turn. He has doffed the politician for
the moment and now comes out a ruling peda-

* See Chapter V.

t See bound volumes of Globe in Legislative Library,
Toronto.

25

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

gogue of Canada. What a pity that he was not
a cardinal or at least a stage representative of
one! At what a rate would he strut upon the
boards as Wolsey and rant for the benefit of
his hearers and for his own benefit more
especially! He beats all the presumptuous
meddling priests of the day . . . Doubtless the
Rev. Mr. Ryerson is preparing to astonish the
world by his educational researches in Europe
and the United States. It will be a subject of
no small amusement to watch his pranks. We
shall no doubt hear of his visiting all the most
celebrated Continental schools and are aston
ished he did not call at Oxford and Cambridge.
He could no doubt have given them some
excellent hints!"

In a Globe editorial of December i6th, 1845,
when the Draper University Bill of that year
was yet a topic of public discussion, we find this
reference to Ryerson : " It is now more than
twelve months since the Province was insulted
by the appointment of Dr. Ryerson to the
responsible situation of Superintendent of
Public Instruction. To hide the gross iniquity
of the transaction, Ryerson was sent out of the
country on pretence of inquiring into the differ
ent systems of education. After being several
months in England this public officer, paid by
the people of Canada, has for the last eight
months been on the Continent on a tour of
pleasure . . . Let the people of Canada rejoice

26

Biographical

and every Methodist willing to be sold throw
up his cap. Ryerson is here ready to dispose of
them to the highest bidder, the purchase money
to be applied to his own benefit with a modicum
for Victoria College."

Ryerson s report of 1846 was favourably
received, and the Government asked him to
draft a school bill based on his report. This
he did, and the Bill of 1846 became the basis
of our Common School system. After Lord
Metcalfe s departure from Canada and the
election of a Reform administration, there was
a clamour from strong party men that Ryerson
should be removed. The Toronto Globe led
in the attacks against him. It is a tribute to
his ability and to the system of education which
he proposed, that these attacks all failed and
that Dr. Ryerson came by degrees to command
the confidence of both political parties.

As soon as possible after his return from
Europe in 1845, Ryerson moved from Cobourg
to Toronto. When appointed in 1844, his rank
was that of Deputy or Assistant Superin
tendent of Education for Upper Canada, the
nominal head of the Department being the
Provincial Secretary. The School Bill of 1846
made a change, and on June i/th of that year
Ryerson received his commission as Superin
tendent of Education. One of his first acts was
a proposal to found a journal of education,
which should be a semi-official means of com-

27

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

munication between the Superintendent on the
one hand and District Superintendents, Trus
tees, Municipal Councillors, and teachers on
the other. The " Journal " was established in
1848 and regularly issued until Ryerson gave
up office in 1876.

In the autumn of 1847, Ryerson spent nearly
three months visiting County School Conven
tions, where he explained the new School Act
and delivered a lecture upon The Importance
of Education to an Agricultural People." In
1850, Ryerson began a struggle for free schools
which lasted until 1871. About the same time
he obtained permission from the Legislature to
establish an Educational Depository in con
nection with the Education Department. He
visited Europe and some American cities and
made very advantageous arrangements for
securing in large quantities books, maps,
globes, and other school appliances. These
were supplied to School Boards at 50 cents
on the dollar. The Depository was continued
in operation until 1881 and handled in all
$1,000,000 worth of supplies. In 1853 Ryerson
spent three months in attending County Con
ventions and addressed thirty meetings. Dur
ing this tour he visited his native county of
Norfolk, and at Simcoe was presented with
an address by the School Board. On his re
turn to Toronto he was presented with an
address and a silver tea service by the officials

28

Biographical

of the Education Department and the teachers
of the Normal School.

In 1853, Ryerson took advantage of an
annual grant made by the Legislature in 1850
to establish public libraries throughout the
Province. Before the end of 1855 no less than
117,000 volumes were distributed. In 1854
Ryerson was one of the Commissioners to pre
pare a report on a system of education for
New Brunswick; In June, 1855, being in poor
health, he got leave of absence to travel in
Europe and to purchase objects of art for
an educational museum. He was appointed
Honorary Commissioner to the Paris Exposi
tion by the Government. During his tour he
visited London, spent several weeks in Paris,
and made brief visits to Antwerp, Brussels,
Munich, Florence, and Rome.

In 1857, a new system of audit was adopted
by the Government. Previous to this time the
total money voted for schools for Upper
Canada had been paid over to Ryerson. He
gave bondsmen as security for the money and
deposited it in the Toronto banks. Interest
allowed on unexpended balances was credited
to his personal account. This system seems to
have been universal among officers in charge of
public money at that time. But in 1857 the
new auditor called in question Ryerson s right
to this interest. After much wrangling, Ryer
son paid over to the Government 1,375, being

29

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

the amount he had received for interest. He
then put in a claim of about the same amount
for his expenses to Europe in 1844, and for
amounts paid a deputy during his absence.
The Government paid his claim, thus showing
that they believed him morally entitled to the
interest which he had repaid.

In 1860, Ryerson made a three months edu
cational tour, addressing County Conventions.
In all, he attended thirty-five meetings, giving
addresses on the subjects of " Vagrant Chil
dren," " Free Schools," and " Public Gram
mar Schools." He was given a public dinner
by the teachers of Northumberland and Dur
ham on the occasion of his official visit to
Cobourg. In 1866 he made a similar tour,
addressing forty meetings in seven weeks. His
chief object was to create public opinion in
favor of legislation on compulsory attendance,
public libraries and township Boards of Trus
tees. Later in the same year he again got
permission to visit Europe for the purpose of
adding to the museum and collecting informa
tion on schools for the deaf, dumb, and blind.
He visited New York, London, Paris, Rome,
Venice, and Geneva, returning in 1867. On his
return he presented to the Legislature an
elaborate report on education in Great Britain
and European countries. In December, 1868,
Ryerson tendered his resignation, suggesting
that a responsible Minister of Education should

30

Biographical

be appointed and proposing that he himself
should be superannuated. The resignation was
not accepted.

In 1869 he held another series of County
Conventions. In the same year he wrote a
letter to the Provincial Secretary, Hon. M. C.
Cameron, reflecting on the action of Treasurer
E. B. Wood in regard to a proposed change in
the financial management of the Education
Department. Ryerson s letter was indiscreet
and would have led to his dismissal had he not
withdrawn it. In 1872 the long-smouldering
dissatisfaction of the Reform party with Ryer
son s administration came to a head. The
Honourable Edward Blake was Premier, and
his Government disallowed some of Ryerson s
regulations, questioned the authority of the
Council of Public Instruction, and sought in
many ways to curtail the Superintendent s
power. Ryerson showed very little desire for
conciliation and wished to refer the dispute to
the Courts. He had so long and so success
fully wielded an arbitrary power that he could
not acquiesce in the system which made his
Department subordinate to a responsible
Cabinet. In 1873, Oliver Mowat became
Attorney-General, and he, too, found Ryerson
obdurate. Finally, as a result of this agitation,
the Council of Public Instruction came to be
composed partly of members elected by various
bodies of teachers and partly by members ap-

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

pointed by the Cabinet. These latter were not
recommended by the Superintendent, as had
formerly been the custom. Friction over the
Council continued during 1874 and 1875.

In 1876, Ryerson was retired on his full
salary of $4,000 a year. The following May
he went to England to consult documents in the
library of the British Museum bearing on his
work, " The Loyalists of America." He en
joyed fairly good health until within a few
months of his death, which occurred on Febru
ary iQth, 1882. The Government recognized
his valuable services by a grant of $10,000 to
his widow. On the 24th of May, 1889, a statue
to his memory was unveiled on the grounds of
the Education Department, the scene of his
labours for nearly forty years.

CHAPTER II.

EDUCATION IN UPPER CANADA FROM
1783 TO 1844.

IMMEDIATELY after the signing of the
Treaty of Versailles in 1783, United Empire
Loyalists began to make homes in Upper
Canada. The Great Lakes and larger rivers
were the natural highways. It happened, there
fore, that the earliest settlements were along
the St. Lawrence, the Niagara, and Lakes Erie
and Ontario.

For a few years these settlers were too busy
to think very much about schools. Man s first
wants are food, clothing, and shelter. But just
as soon as rude homes were built and a patch
of forest cleared upon which to grow grain
and vegetables, these Upper Canadian Loyal
ists began to think of schools. It was natural
that they should do so. They were descendants
of an intelligent stock, people who had good
schools in New England and of a people whose
forefathers had enjoyed liberal educational ad
vantages in the old world.

Governor Simcoe reached Upper Canada in
1792, and almost immediately took steps to
establish schools. He was an aristocrat who

33

Rycrson and Education in Upper Canada

firmly believed in such a constitution of
society as then existed in the old world. He
naturally wished to see a reproduction of that
society in the new world. Hence we are not
surprised to find that his educational schemes
were intended for the classes rather than for
the masses. In a letter* written by Simcoe,
April 28th, 1792, to the British Secretary of
State, he urges grants of 100 each for schools
at Niagara and Kingston. He also proposed a
university with English Church professors.

In 1797, the House of Assembly and Legis
lative Council adopted an address to the King
praying him to set apart waste lands of the
Crown for the establishment of a respectable
grammar school in each District, and also for a
college or university. In answer to this peti
tion, the Duke of Portland wrote saying that
His Majesty proposed to comply with the re
quest and wished further advice as to the best
means of carrying it out.

The Executive Council, the Judges and law
officers of the Crown met in consultation in
1798 and recommended that 500,000 acres of
waste Crown lands be set apart to build a pro
vincial university, and a free grammar school
in each of the four Districts. Grammar schools
were to be built at once at Kingston and at
Niagara, and, as soon as circumstances would

* See D. H. E. (" Documentary History of Education,"
by Dr. Hodgins), Vol. I., p. n.

34

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

permit, at Cornwall and at Sandwich. The
university was to be at York. It was estimated
that each grammar school would cost 3,000
to build and 180 a year to maintain. The
schools were to accommodate one hundred boys
each, and have a residence for the master, with
some rooms for boarders.* No steps were
taken to carry out these plans until after 1807.

Several private schools were opened prior
to 1800. The chief of these were at Newark,
York, Ancaster, Cornwall, Kingston, Adol-
phustown, St. Catharines, and Belleville. Some
were evening schools. All were supported by
fees. Many were taught by clergymen. The
principal subjects were reading, writing, and
arithmetic.

On December i/th, 1802, Dr. Baldwin, of
York, the father of Hon. Robt. Baldwin,
issued the following notice; f

Understanding that some of the Gentlemen
of this Town have expressed much anxiety for
the establishment of a Classical School, Dr.
Baldwin begs leave to inform them and the
Public that he intends, on Monday, the third
day of January next, to open a school, in which
he will instruct twelve boys in Reading, Writ
ing, the Classics, and Arithmetic.

The terms are for each boy, Eight Guineas
per annum, to be paid quarterly. One guinea

* See D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 21.
t See D H. E., Vol. I., p. 33.

35

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

entrance and one cord of wood to be supplied
by each boy."

John Strachan, afterwards Bishop Strachan,
opened a private school at Kingston in 1799.
Later he opened one at Cornwall, and still later
one at York. Attempts to open a public school
in each District were defeated in the Legis
lature in 1804 and 1805. In 1806 the sum of
400* was appropriated to purchase scientific
apparatus.

In 1807, the Legislature took steps to carry
out the plan proposed in 1797. There were by
this time eight Districts in Upper Canada-
Eastern, Johnstown, Midland, Newcastle,
Home, Niagara, London, and Western. The
sum of 800 was fixed as an annual appropria
tion to support " a Public School in each and
every District in the Province." This meant
100 for each school or teacher. The Legis
lature also fixed the places where the schools
were to be held. The Lieutenant-Governor-in-
Council was to appoint not less than five
trusteesf for each District school. These trus
tees were given almost absolute control over
the management of the schools.

* This 400 worth of apparatus was promptly handed
over to Mr. Strachan by the Lieutenant-Governor. Mr.
Strachan at this time had a private school at Cornwall. It
seems quite evident that the apparatus was purchased pur
posely for his school and at his suggestion. See D. H. E.,
Vol. I., p. 155.

t See D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 61.

36

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to

It must not be supposed that these schools
were public schools in the sense we now
attach to that term. Their founders had
in mind the great English public school,
whose curriculum was largely classical
and whose benefits were confined to the
wealthy. These schools were not in any sense
popular schools. It would seem that Governor
Simcoe s proposal in 1798 was to have " Free
Grammar Schools."* But those established
by the Act of 1807 levied considerable sums in
fees. They were designed to educate the sons
of gentlemen. They were to prepare for pro
fessional life. They were essentially for the
benefit of the ruling classes. They were largely
controlled by Anglicans, f and in many cases
the teachers were Anglican clergymen.

If these schools were not public schools as
we now use the term " public school," neither
were they high schools as we now use that term.
The curricula had no uniformity. Each school
was a law unto itself and depended almost
wholly upon the teacher. If he were scholarly
and earnest the school would accomplish much.
Often very young boys who could scarcely read
were admitted. In some schools a fine training

* See D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 20.

f In 1830, when the United Presbytery of Upper Canada
petitioned the Legislature against appointing so many
Anglicans as trustees of grammar schools, the only reply
was that Anglicans had not always been appointed.

37

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

in classics was given; in others even the ele
ments of a common education were neglected.

But although these schools were not for the
mass of the people, their establishment was
none the less an event of far-reaching import
ance. It was a decided advantage to the mass
of the people that their rulers should have some
educational advantages. No one can read the
lists of names of men educated in these schools
and afterwards prominent in Canadian public
life without recognizing that their establishment
was a blessing to the whole of Canada. They
were caste schools, but they kept alive the torch
of learning and civilization. Being founded out
of public funds, there was created an interest
in their welfare among the members of the
Legislative Assembly. As years went on and
the members of the Assembly came to really
represent the people of Upper Canada, they
were led to extend to all of the people such edu
cational advantages as had been granted to a
section of the people in 1807.

Several efforts were made to repeal the Act
of 1807 and substitute for it one of a more
popular nature. These efforts were baffled
either by the Legislative Council or through
the influence of that body in the Assembly it
self. A petition* presented by sixty-five resi
dents of the Midland District to the Legislature

* See Journals of Legislature of Upper Canada for 1812.

38

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

of 1812 will give a fair idea of the state of
feeling throughout Upper Canada in regard to
education : Your petitioners . . . feel them
selves in duty bound to state that An Act to
establish Public Schools in each and every Dis
trict of this Province is found by experience
not to answer the end for which it was de
signed. Its object, it is presumed, was to pro
mote the education of our youth in general,
but a little acquaintance with the facts must
convince every unbiased mind that it has con
tributed little or nothing to the promotion of
so laudable a design. By reason of the place
of instruction being established at one end of
the District, and the sum demanded for tuition,
in addition to the annual compensation received
from the public, most of the people are unable
to avail themselves of the advantages con
templated by the institution. A few wealthy
inhabitants, and those of the Town of Kings
ton, reap exclusively the benefit of it in this
District. The institution, instead of aiding the
middling and poorer class of His Majesty s
subjects, casts money into the lap of the rich,
who are sufficiently able, without public assist
ance, to support a school in every respect equal
to the one established by law. . . . Wherefore,
your petitioners pray, that so much of the Act
first mentioned may be repealed, and such pro
visions made in the premises as may be con
ducive to public utility."

39

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

A repeal bill of the Act of 1807 was passed
by the Legislative Assembly of 1812, but
thrown out by the Legislative Council. The
Act of 1807 limited the schools to one for each
District. This was unsatisfactory even to that
class for whom the schools were especially
designed. As the country made progress and
became more thickly populated, eight schools
were a wholly inadequate provision for the
education of those requiring it. But the Legis
lative Assembly steadily resisted any attempt
to enlarge the scope of these class schools. Per
haps it was owing to their resistance that in
1816 they secured the consent of the Legis
lative Council to a really forward movement
in elementary education.

But it would be a serious mistake to infer
that the educational machinery of Upper Can
ada previous to 1816 was limited to these eight
District Grammar Schools. What the Govern
ment failed to provide, private enterprise se
cured. More than two hundred schools were
certainly in operation in 1816. These schools
were maintained partly by subscriptions from
well-to-do people and partly by fees collected
from the pupils. In many cases they were
private ventures, conducted by teachers who
depended wholly upon fees. In some cases these
schools were of a high order, perhaps superior
to the District Grammar Schools; in other
cases, probably in the large majority of cases,

40

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

they were very inefficient. The average fees
paid by pupils in the elementary schools were
about twelve shillings per quarter.

William Crooks, of Grimsby, writing to
Gourlay, in January, 1818, says:* The state
of education is also at a very low ebb, not only
in this township but generally throughout the
District ; although the liberality of the Legis
lature has been great in support of the District
Grammar Schools (giving to the teachers of
each 100 per annum) yet they have been
productive of little or no good hitherto, for
this obvious cause, they are looked upon as
seminaries exclusively instituted for the educa
tion of the children of the more wealthy classes
of society, and to which the poor man s child
is considered as unfit to be admitted. From
such causes, instead of their being a benefit
to the Province, they are sunk into obscurity,
and the heads of most of them are at this
moment enjoying their situations as comfort
able sinecures. Another class of schools has
within a short time been likewise founded upon
the liberality of the Legislative purse denomin
ated as Common or Parish Schools, but like
the preceding, the anxiety of the teacher em
ployed seems more alive to his stipend than
the advancement of the education of those

* See Gourlay s " Statistical Account of Upper Canada."
Pages 433-434 of Vol. I. Published by Simpkin & Mar
shall, London, Eng., 1822.

41

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

placed under his care; from the pecuniary ad
vantages thus held out we have been inundated
with the worthless scum, under the character
of schoolmasters, not only of this but of every
other country where the knowledge has been
promulgated of the easy means our laws afford
of getting a living here, by obtaining a parish
school."

The Common or Parish Schools referred to
in this letter were the result of the legislation
of 1816, a red-letter year in school affairs be
cause it saw the first attempts in Upper Canada
to give schools under public control to the com
mon people. The sum of $24,000 a year was
appropriated for four years to establish Com
mon Schools. The law provided that the
people of any village, town or township might
meet together and arrange to establish one or
more schools, at each of which the attendance
must be not less than twenty. Three suitable
trustees were to be chosen to conduct the school,
appoint teachers, and select textbooks from a
list prescribed by a District Board of Educa
tion. The Legislature authorized payments
to each of these schools of a sum not exceeding
100. The balance needed to maintain the
school had to be made up by subscriptions.

In 1819 the Grammar School Act of 1807
received some slight amendments. The grant
of 100 per school was reduced to 50 for new
schools, except where the number of pupils

42

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

exceeded ten. A new school was authorized
for the new Gore District, at Hamilton. Trus
tee Boards were required to present annual re
ports to the Lieutenant-Governor and to con
duct an annual public examination. But the
most important change was provision for the
free education of ten poor children at each
District Public School. These children were
chosen by lot from names submitted by Trustee
Boards of Common Schools.

In 1822 the Governor, Sir Peregrine Mait-
land, on his own responsibility, had established
in Toronto a school known as the Upper Can
ada Central School, formed on the plan of the
British National Schools, which had been estab
lished in Britain by Rev. Dr. Bell. These
schools were decidedly Anglican in tone, and
that established in Toronto was at the instiga
tion of Rev. Dr. Strachan.* In a despatch to
Earl Bathurst, Colonial Secretary in 1822,
Governor Maitland said :t It is proposed to
establish one introductory school on the na
tional plan in each town of a certain size. It
is supposed that a salary of 100 per annum
to the master of each such school would be
sufficient. The number of these schools may
be increased as the circumstances of the Pro
vince may require and the means allow. 1

* See D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 176.

t See copy of despatch in D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 179.

43

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

In answer, the Earl of Bathurst, under date
of October I2th, 1823, says : * " I am happy to
have it in my power to convey to you His
Majesty s consent that you appropriate a por
tion of the Reserves set apart for the estab
lishment of a University for the support of
schools on the National [Church of England]
plan of education." This action established
one school, and had in contemplation the estab
lishment of others under the direct control of
the Governor and his Council. The Legislative
Assembly naturally resented the action, and for
two reasons. They objected to the disposal
of any Crown property other than upon their
authority. They objected to anything being
done that would lessen the resources of the
proposed University.

A side-light upon education in Upper Canada
is furnished by Mr. E. A. Talbot, who pub
lished a series of letters upon Upper Canada in
London, 1824. I quote from Letter XXX : "The
great mass of the [Canadian] people are at
present completely ignorant even of the rudi
ments of the most common learning. Very few
can either read or write ; and parents who are
ignorant themselves, possess so slight a relish
for literature and are so little acquainted with
its advantages, that they feel scarcely any anxi
ety to have the minds of their children culti
vated. . . . They will not believe that

* See copy of despatch in D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 179.

44

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

knowledge is power/ and being convinced
that it is not in the nature of " book-learned
skill to improve the earnestness of their sons
in hewing wood or the readiness of their
daughters in spinning flax, they consider it a
misapplication of money to spend any sum in
obtaining instruction for their offspring. Noth
ing can afford a stronger proof of their indif
ference in this respect than the circumstance of
their electing men to represent them in the
Provincial Parliament, whose attainments in
learning are in many instances exceedingly
small, and sometimes do not pass beyond the
horn-book. I have myself been present in the
Honourable the House of Assembly when
some of the members, on being called to be
Chairmen of Committees, were under the dis
agreeable and humiliating necessity of request
ing other members to read the bills before the
Committee, and then, as the different clauses
were rejected or adopted, to request these,
their proxies, to signify the same in the com
mon mode of writing."

In 1823 there was established a General
Board of Education, consisting of : The Hon.
and Rev. John Strachan, D.D., Chairman;
Hon. Jos. Wells, M.L.C. ; Hon. G. H. Mark-
land, M.L.C. ; Rev. Robert Addison; John
Beverley Robinson, Esq., Attorney-General;
Thomas Ridout, Esq., Surveyor-General. The
same session of the Legislature set apart 150

45

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

as an annual grant for purchasing books and
tracts designed to afford moral and religious
instruction.

By the creation of a General Board of Edu
cation, Rev. Dr. Strachan became very prom
inently identified with education in Upper
Canada. No man was better qualified through
zeal, practical knowledge, and a genuine inter
est in higher education. He had been made
an honorary member of the Executive Council
in 1815, and an active member in 1817. In
1820 he was appointed a member of the Legis
lative Council. Being a prominent Churchman,
an experienced and successful teacher, and re
siding at York, he was naturally consulted by
successive Governors on educational matters.
Strachan was an uncompromising Churchman
with ritualistic tendencies, and in politics a
Tory of the George III. school. He had
neither faith in, nor sympathy for, a democracy.
He accepted things as he found them, and
wished to preserve them so. He could con
ceive of no more perfect state of society for
the new world than that which he left behind
him in the old. He firmly believed in education
of the most noble kind for gentlemen, but it
is doubtful if he recognized the right of every
man to the highest possible cultivation of his
intellectual powers. He would have looked
upon such a plan as subversive of the existing
orders of society. At any rate he never evinced

46

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

any passion for popular education except that
moral and religious education given under the
aegis of an Established Church. On the other
hand, no man in Canada had a more sincere
desire to foster higher institutions of learning,
and it had from the very first been Strachan s
plan that the District Grammar Schools should
be feeders for a Provincial University, and
now, in 1824, when he became virtually head
of educational affairs in Upper Canada, he
determined to carry his scheme to a successful
issue.

There were serious difficulties. An endow
ment had been provided for a university by
the Crown grant in 1797, but it was at this time
almost worthless. It consisted of blocks of
land, containing several townships, in remote
parts of the Province. The lands were good,
but so long as the Government had free lands
to give incoming settlers, the school lands were
not in demand. Besides these school or uni
versity lands, there were other lands in posses
sion of the Crown. The original surveyor
reserved two-sevenths of all land. One-seventh
was the reserve for a " Protestant Clergy,"
which eventually caused so much strife and
il! T feeling. The other seventh was known as
the Crown Reserve. In many cases this Crown
Reserve was becoming valuable, even in 1824,
because of the labour of settlers who owned
adjoining farms. Much of the Crown Reserve

47

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

was under lease and giving a more or less
certain revenue. Strachan conceived a bold
and successful plan. He suggested to Sir
Peregrine Maitland that for grants to new
settlers the school lands were worth as much
to the Government as the Crown Reserves.
Why not exchange school lands for an equal
area of Crown Reserve land? The matter was
put before the Home Government, and in 1827
a favourable reply was given. The result was
that the University got 225,944 acres of land,
distributed throughout every District in Upper
Canada, but having more than one-half its
total area in the Home, Gore, and London Dis
tricts, the wealthiest and most populous parts
of Upper Canada. The Commissioners, ap
pointed in 1848 by Lord Elgin to enquire into
the affairs of King s College, state (pages 16
and 17) : "The Crown Reserves thus converted
into the University Endowment, consisted of
lands in various parts of Upper Canada in ac
tual or nominal occupation under lease, at rate
of rental fixed by a certain scale established by
the Provincial Government, and a large propor
tion of the lots were in an improved or culti
vated state."

In March, 1826, Rev. Dr. Strachan submitted
to the Lieutenant-Governor a very able and
comprehensive report * showing why a uni
versity ought at once to be established. The

* See copy in D. H. E., Vol. I., pp. 211-213.

4 8

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

report gives an interesting and authentic sum
mary of the state of education in Upper Can
ada at that time. " The present state of
Education in this Province consists of Common
Schools throughout the Townships, established
under several Acts of the Provincial Legisla
ture, and which are now, by the exertions of
Your Excellency, placed on an excellent foot
ing, requiring no other improvements than the
means of multiplying their number, which, no
doubt, will be granted as the finances of the
Province become more productive. In about
three hundred and forty Common Schools
established in the different Districts of the
Colony, from seven to eight thousand children
are taught reading and writing, the elements
of arithmetic, and the first principles of reli
gion ; and when it is considered that the parents
commonly send their children in rotation the
younger in summer when the roads are good,
and the older in winter it is not too much to
say that nearly double this number, or from
twelve to fourteen thousand children, profit
annually by the Common Schools. The conse
quence is that the people, scattered as they are
over a vast wilderness, are becoming alive to
the great advantage of educating their children,
and are, in many places, seconding, with laud
able zeal, the exertions of the Legislature, and
establishing schools at their own expense.
4 49

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

" Provision is made by law for the transla
tion of some of the more promising scholars
from the Common to the District Schools,
where the classics and practical mathematics
are taught. In these schools, eleven in num
ber, there are at present upwards of 300 youth
acquiring an education to qualify them for the
different professions; and, although they can
seldom support more than one master, several
of the young gentlemen who have been brought
up in them are now eminent in their profes
sions, and would, by their talents and high
principles, do credit to seminaries of greater
name. But the period has arrived when the
District Schools [Grammar Schools] will be
come still more useful by confining themselves
to the intention of their first establishment,
namely, nurseries for a University an insti
tution now called for by the increased popula
tion and circumstances of the Colony, and most
earnestly desired by the more respectable inha
bitants.

" There is not in either Province any English
Seminary above the rank of a good school, at
which a liberal education can be obtained.
Thus the youth of nearly 300,000 Englishmen
have no opportunity of receiving instruction
within the Canadas in Law, Medicine, or
Divinity. The consequence is that many young
men coming forward to the learned profes
sions are obliged to look beyond the Province

50

PROPERTY OF

^.....r>M IMOTITHTC

RVFRSII "

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

for the last two years of their education
undoubtedly the most important and critical of
their lives. Very few are able on account of
the great expense to go to England or Scot
land ; and the distance is so great and the diffi
culties so many that parental anxiety reluct
antly trusts children from its observation and
control. The youths are, therefore, in some
degree, compelled to look forward to the
United States, where the means of education,
though of a description far inferior to those
of Great Britain, are yet superior to those
within the Province, and a growing necessity
is arising of sending them to finish their educa
tion in that country. Now, in the United
States, a system prevails unknown to, or un
practised by, any other nation. In all other
countries morals and religion are made the
basis of future instruction, and the first book
put into the hands of children teaches them
the domestic, social, and religious virtues; but
in the United States politics pervade the whole
system of instruction. The school books from
the very first elements are stuffed with praises
of their own institutions and breathe hatred to
everything English. To such a country our
youth may go, strongly attached to their native
land and all its establishments, but by hearing
them continually depreciated and those of
America praised, these attachments will, in
many, be gradually weakened, and some may

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

become fascinated with that liberty which has
degenerated into licentiousness and imbibe,
perhaps unconsciously, sentiments unfriendly to
things of which Englishmen are proud.

The establishment of a University at the seat
of Government will complete a regular system
of education in Upper Canada from the letters
of the alphabet to the most profound investiga
tions of science In regard to

the profession of medicine it is melancholy to
think that more than three-fourths of the
present practitioners have been educated or
attended lectures in the United States. . . .
There are, as yet, only twenty-two clergymen
in Upper Canada, the greater number from
England. It is essential that young men com
ing forward to the Church should be educated
entirely within the Province, but for this there
is no provision. . . . But the wants of the
Province are becoming great, and however
much disposed the elder clergy may be to bring
forward young men to the sacred profession,
they have neither time nor means of doing it
with sufficient effect. There can be nothing of
that zeal, of that union and mutual attachment,
of that deep theological and literary enquiry
and anxiety to excel, which would be found
among men collected at the University, and
here it is not irrelevant to observe that it is of
the greatest importance that the education of
the Colony should be conducted by the clergy.

52

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

"Nothing can be more manifest than that this
Colony has not yet felt the advantage of a
religious establishment. What can twenty-
two clergymen do, scattered over a country
of nearly six hundred miles in length? Can
we be surprised that, under such circumstances,
the religious benefits of the ecclesiastical estab
lishment are unknown, and sectaries of all
descriptions have increased on every side?
And when it is further considered that the
religious teachers of all other Protestant de
nominations, a very few respectable ministers
of the Church of Scotland excepted, come
almost universally from the Republican States
of America, where they gather their knowledge
and form their sentiments, it is evident that
if the Imperial Government does not step for
ward with efficient help, the mass of the popu
lation will be nurtured and instructed in
hostility to all our institutions, both civil and

religious From all which it

appears highly expedient to establish a univer
sity at the seat of Government, to complete the
system of education in the Colony at which all
the branches requisite for qualifying young
men for the learned professions may be taught.
, . . . The principal and professors, ex
cept those of Medicine and Law, should be
clergymen of the Established Church; and no
tutor, teacher, or officer who is not a member

53

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

of that Church should ever be employed in the
institution."

I have given this long quotation from Rev.
Dr. Strachan s report for several reasons. It
shows very clearly the point of view of a re
markable man who had much to do with educa
tional affairs in Upper Canada for a period of
nearly seventy years. It shows his zeal for
higher education, his belief in the efficacy of a
religious establishment, his narrow bigotry and
intolerance of all outside of an establishment,
his old-world belief that the clergy should con
trol education, his loyal attachment to British
institutions, and above all, to those who read
between the lines, his lack of real interest in
elementary education. He is perfectly satisfied
with the state of the Common Schools, although
they were then accommodating less than one
in twenty of the total population. The schools
of which he says, " which are now, by the
exertions of Your Excellency, placed on an
excellent footing, requiring no other improve
ments than the means of multiplying their
number," were conducted in rude buildings,
without any apparatus, with a motley assort
ment of textbooks, and taught in many cases
by ignorant itinerant schoolmasters who were
of no use at any other occupation, and who
received from $80 to $200 a year! Little can
ever be expected in the way of improvement
from those who are wholly satisfied with pre-
54

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

sent conditions, and it is safe to say that any
improvements that took place in the Common
Schools of Canada under the regime of the
Rev. Dr. Strachan were owing to other causes
than the efforts put forth by that gentleman.
The Common Schools of Upper Canada had to
wait for a new birth until Ryerson breathed
life into them.

Rev. Dr. Strachan s Report is interesting for
another reason it deals with the proposed
King s College and its relations with what Dr.
Strachan calls the " religious establishment
in Canada. This " religious establishment :
was to have as its basis the one-seventh of all
lands in Upper Canada as provided for by the
Constitutional Act of 1791. Now these two
things, the Clergy Reserves and King s College,
caused more trouble to the Canadian Legisla
ture and engendered more bitter feeling among
the people of Upper Canada than any other
two questions that ever were debated in the
Parliament of Upper Canada, or in the Par
liament of the united Canadas. In the Parlia
mentary struggle over both these questions the
Rev. Dr. Strachan was an active and valiant
leader of the party of privilege, and among
those who led the opposing forces to a final
victory none was more courageous or more
successful than Dr. Ryerson.

Dr. Strachan went to England in 1826 to
use his personal influence towards securing a

55

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

Royal Charter for a University. He there
issued an appeal to the English people for aid
on the ground that the proposed College would
be largely occupied in educating clergymen for
the Anglican Church.* A Royal Charter, mak
ing the proposed university a close corporation
under the control of Anglican clergymen, was
obtained. Besides granting the charter the
British Government made a grant toward
buildings of 1,000 a year for sixteen years.

When the Legislative Assembly met in 1828
several members presented numerously signed
petitions praying for definite information about
the newly granted charter of King s College.
The Governor sent down a copy of the charter
which was referred to a select committee. The
committee protested against the nature of the
charter in that the university was to become
an Anglican institution, supported out of pub
lic funds. This they thought unjust, inas
much as only a small proportion of the settlers
of Upper Canada were Anglicans, f The
committee also drafted an address to His
Majesty the King. This address was adopted
by the Assembly, and immediately despatched
to His Majesty by the Governor. The address
was courteous and loyal in tone, but the exact

* See " An Appeal to the Friends of Religion and Litera
ture in behalf of the University of Upper Canada." By
John Strachan, Archdeacon of York, Upper Canada, 1826.

t See Journals of House of Assembly for Upper Can
ada, 1828.

56

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

condition of affairs in Canada was made clear.
The King was petitioned to cancel the charter
to King s College, and grant one that would
make possible a university for all classes. This
address to His Majesty and the protest of the
Assembly of Upper Canada attracted the atten
tion of a select committee of the Imperial
Parliament. This committee* reported against
that part of the Charter which required
religious tests. George Ryerson, of Canada,
gave valuable evidence before this committee
relative to Canadian affairs. It seems doubtful
whether His Majesty s advisers, when the
King s College charter was given, were really
made aware of the conditions of society in
Canada. Those Canadians who had the ears
of His Majesty s advisers were, for the most
part, interested in forming and strengthening
an Anglican Establishment.

* See Report made 22nd July, 1828, by Select Com
mittee of House of Commons, appointed to inquire into
the State of Civil Government in Canada.

57

CHAPTER HI.

EDUCATION IN UPPER CAN ADA FROM
1783 TO 1844 (Continued).

LATE in the year 1828, Sir Peregrine Mait-
land was replaced as Lieutenant-Governor of
Upper Canada by Sir John Colborne. About
the same time Sir George Murray, who had
acted as Administrator of the Government of
Upper Canada in 1815, and who consequently
knew something of Canadian affairs, became
Colonial Secretary in the Imperial Parliament.
In acknowledging receipt of the petition to His
Majesty of the Assembly of Upper Canada
protesting against the King s College charter,
Sir George Murray, in a communication to Sir
John Colborne, said :* " It would be deserv
edly a subject of regret to His Majesty s Gov
ernment, if the University, recently established
at York, should prove to have been founded
upon principles which cannot be made to ac
cord with the general feelings and opinions
of those for whose advantage it was intended.
. . . . I have observed that your prede
cessor (Sir Peregrine Maitland) in the Gov
ernment of Upper Canada differs from the

* See copy of Sir George Murray s letter in D. H. E.,
Vol. I., pp. 257 and 258.

58

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

House of Assembly as to the general prevalence
of objections to the University founded upon
the degree of exclusive connection which it has
with the Church of England. It seems reason
able to conclude, however, that on such a sub
ject as this an address adopted by a full House
of Assembly, with scarcely any dissentient
voices,* must be considered to express the pre
vailing opinion in the Province upon this
subject.

In the event, therefore, of its appearing to
you to be proper to invite the Legislative Coun
cil and House of Assembly to resume the con
sideration of this question, you will apprise
them that their representations on the existing
charter of the University have attracted the
serious attention of His Majesty s Government
and that the opinion which may be expressed
by the Legislative Council and House of As
sembly on that subject will not fail to receive
the most prompt and serious attention."

Shortly after the receipt of this communica
tion Sir John Colborne, as Chancellor of King s
College, convened the College Council and de
clared that no immediate steps were to be taken
toward active University work, and that not
one stone should be put upon another j-.atil
certain alterations had been made in the
charter.

*The vote stood 21 for and 9 against.

59

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

In 1829 the Chairman of the General Board
of Education, Rev. Dr. Strachan, presented to
the Legislative Assembly his first annual report.
It is an able and very suggestive document. It
showed 372 pupils* in the eleven Grammar
Schools, and 401 Common Schools with 10,712
pupils. Dr. Strachan had personally visited
each Grammar School during 1828, and had
incidentally learned something of the Common
Schools. Referring to Grammar Schools he
says :f " It will be seen that in some places
girls are admitted. t This happens from the
want of good female schools, and perhaps from
the more rapid progress which children are
supposed to make under experienced and able
schoolmasters. It is to be wished, however,
that separate schools for the sexes were estab
lished, as the admission of female children
interferes with the government which is re
quired in classical seminaries; it is, neverthe
less, an inconvenience of a temporary nature,
which will gradually pass away as the popula
tion increases in wealth and numbers." This
inconvenience of a temporary nature per
sisted until 1868, when girls were formally ad
mitted as pupils in Grammar Schools.

* In 1827 there were 329 pupils, of whom 8 in the
Cornwall School were girls.

t See copy of Report in D. H. E., Vol. I., pp. 266 and 267.

t The Report for 1828 showed 25 girls in the eleven
District Schools.

60

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

Dr. Strachan pointed out very clearly in this
Report that the Common Schools could never
improve very much until the teachers were
better paid. He also made an excellent prac
tical suggestion.* " The Provincial Board,
therefore, would submit with all deference, that
in addition to the public allowance, even if
increased beyond its present amount, a power
should be given to the Townships to assess
themselves for this special purpose."

Here we have laid down the correct prin
ciple of support for public schools, and one
cannot but feel that had Dr. Strachan followed
up this suggestion by pressing it upon the
Legislature, and by discussing it with school-
managers and the general public, he might have
secured its early adoption.

When the Legislature convened in 1829, Sir
John Colborne in the Speech from the
Thronef made direct reference to education as
follows : " The Public [Grammar] Schools are
generally increasing, but their organization
appears susceptible of improvement. Measures
will be adopted, I hope, to reform the Royal
Grammar School [the District School at York]
and to incorporate it with the University re
cently endowed by His Majesty, and to intro
duce a system in that Seminary which will open

* See original Report in Appendix to Journals of
Assembly, U. C., pp. 16 and 17 of Appendix on Education.

t See Journals of Assembly for U. C. for 1829, p. 5.

61

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

to the youth of the Province the means of
receiving a liberal and extensive course of
instruction. Unceasing exertions should be
made to attract able masters to this country,
where the population bears no proportion to
the number of offices and employments that
must necessarily be held by men of education
and acquirements, for the support of the laws
and of your free institutions."

This message from the Governor may re
quire some explanation. In the first place let
us note that Sir John Colborne was an able
and enlightened man, sincerely desirous of giv
ing to Upper Canada a government that would
be acceptable to the mass of the people. He
seems to have realized clearly that the Assembly
was a fairly accurate reflection of public opin
ion, and that no policy could ultimately prevail
unless it was in harmony with its wishes. His
action in arresting the working of King s Col
lege was one proof of this, although his subse
quent action in founding Upper Canada College
solely on his own responsibility showed his
belief in the power of the Crown to take inde
pendent action. He saw that the District
Grammar Schools were very inefficient and
were touching the lives of an insignificant
proportion of the people of Upper Canada. He
foresaw that for some years the revenue to be
derived from the endowment of King s College
would not support a very pretentious institu-

62

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

tion, and that for such an institution, even if
it were in operation, there would be very few
students prepared by previous study to profit
from its courses. In his opinion the immediate
wants of the country would be better served
by a high-class school than by a university.
Hence his proposal to reform the Royal Gram
mar School at York and incorporate it with
King s College.

The Assembly of 1829 contained many
eminent men, of whom it is sufficient to men
tion Marshall Bidwell (the Speaker), William
Lyon Mackenzie, W. W. Baldwin (father of
Hon. Robert Baldwin), and John Rolph, the
latter a graduate of the University of Cam
bridge. The Assembly appointed a select com
mittee on Education. This committee made an
extensive report * upon both District Grammar
and Common Schools. In regard to the former
they were pronounced in their condemnation
and recommended their abolition. The report
claimed that the District or Grammar School
Trustees, appointed by the Crown, were chosen
to promote the interests of the Anglican
Church; that in many cases the schools them
selves were merely stepping-stones for the
clergy of the Anglican Church; that they were
under no efficient inspection; that they were
quite as expensive to those parents who did

* See Report in Appendix to Journals of Assembly for
1829, p. 42.

63

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

not live immediately beside them as much
better schools in the United States ; and finally
that as only 108 pupils in the whole Province
were studying languages in these schools, that
their work could be done equally well by really
good Common Schools. The report lamented
the low salaries of teachers in Common Schools
and suggested that no Government grants
should be given unless the managers of schools
themselves raised by subscription equal
amounts. The report also protested against
the payment out of public funds of 300 a year
to Rev. Dr. Strachan, as Chairman of the
General Board,* and against his assumption
that reports of District Schools should be made
to him instead of to the Lieutenant-Governor.
The report expressed a hope that something
might be done to encourage the publication of
textbooks in Canada, and concluded with ex
pressing approval of the Governor s plan to
found a seminary of a high class, which should
be free from sectarian influences and afford
advanced instruction to the youth of Canada.

Later in the session of 1829 this select com
mittee on Education prepared a series of reso
lutions which were adopted by the Assembly.

* The General Board of Education had been organized
by Sir Peregrine Maitland wholly on his own authority and
that of the Home Government. The Assembly naturally
refused to acknowledge any obligation to support it with
public funds.

6 4

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

The following are the chief points in the reso
lutions :

1. That the Governor, or Lieutenant-Gov
ernor of the Province, not being amenable for
his conduct to any tribunal, ought not to be
Chancellor of King s College.

2. That it ought not to be required that the
President of King s College be a clergyman of
the Anglican Church, and that he ought to be
elected or appointed for a stated term.

3. That the Archdeacon of York ought not
by virtue of his clerical office to become Pre
sident of King s College.

4. That the President and Professors of
King s College ought not to be required to
subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles.

5. That the Degree of Doctor of Divinity
ought to be conferred by King s College upon
any professing Christian who passed the re
quired examinations in Classical, Biblical, and
other subjects of learning.

6. That wherever the charter of King s Col
lege is in any way sectarian it should be
amended.

The Governor asked the Legislative Council
to consider in what way the charter of King s
College could be amended to make it more
acceptable to the people of Upper Canada. The
Council in reply recommended that instead of

* See Appendix to Journals of Assembly of U.C. for 1829,
pp. 72 and 73.

5 65

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

the Archdeacon of York any Anglican clergy
man should be eligible for President. They
also recommended that tests for the Council be
dispensed with.

Having the sanction of the Home Govern
ment, and feeling sure of the active support
of the Assembly, Sir John Colborne immedi
ately put in execution his plan of forming a
high-class school to replace the Royal Gram
mar School at York. He caused advertise
ments to be inserted in the British papers for
masters. The head master was to have a house,
600 per annum, and the privilege of taking
boarders. The classical and mathematical mas
ters were to receive 300 a year and similar
privileges. The Assembly had suggested that
the new school should be known as Colborne
College, but the name adopted was Upper
Canada College. The school opened in 1830
with a staff of seven specialists, nearly all
chosen in England. The work was carried on
in the buildings of the old Grammar School
until handsome and elaborate buildings were
erected on Russell Square, north of King
Street. An endowment of some 60,000 acres
from the School lands was given the new insti
tution. It was generally felt that the new
school would, for the present, supply the want
of a university, aud also make it unnecessary
for Canadian youths to complete their educa
tion in the United States.

66

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

Before Upper Canada College had been
working a year a very numerously-signed peti
tion was presented by some York patrons of
the school praying for some modification of the
exclusively classical nature of the programme
for those boys destined for commerce and
mechanical pursuits. The Governor s attempt
to give Canadians a high-class collegiate school
seemed only partially successful. The error
was in attempting to adapt to a new country
a form of school that suited the requirements
of a select class in an old and highly civilized
country. Latin and Greek must be crammed
into boys whether or not they had any natural
aptitude for language study, and quite irrespec
tive of their future occupations in life.

The founding and liberal equipment of Upper
Canada College had one effect that might easily
have been foretold. Petitions came from al
most every Grammar School District praying
for endowed and well-equipped schools similar
to Upper Canada College. The petitioners re
sented the concentration at York of two im
portant institutions, Upper Canada College and
King s College, deriving support from an en
dowment originally set aside to give educa
tional facilities to the whole of Upper Canada.
The Assembly of 1833, through a select
committee, made a minute examination into
the affairs of Upper Canada College, and
passed a resolution recommending that it be

67

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

incorporated with King s College. I give here
quotations from two writers on Upper Can
ada College, showing how differently things
appear when viewed through different eyes.
The first is from a letter written in 1833 by
Rev. Thomas Radcliffe.* " Future genera
tions will bless the memory of Sir
John Colborne, who, to the many advan
tages derived from the equity and wisdom of
his government, has added that of a magnifi
cent foundation [in Upper Canada College]
for the purposes of literary instruction. The
lowest salary of any of the professors of this
institution is 300 per annum, with the accom
modation of a noble brick house and the privi
lege of taking boarders at 50 per annum."

The next is from " Sketches," published by
William Lyon Mackenzie, London, 1833.
Splendid incomes are given to the masters of
the new [Upper Canada] College, culled at Ox
ford by the Vice-Chancellor, and dwellings fur
nished to the professors (we may say) by the
sweat of the brow of the Canadian
labourer. All these advantages and others
not now necessary to be mentioned, are
insufficient to gratify the rapacious ap
petite of the Established Church man
agers, who, in order to accumulate wealth
and live in opulence, charge the children of His
Majesty s subjects ten times as high fees as

* See copy of letter in D. H. E., Vol. II., pp. 120 and 121.

68

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

are required by the less amply endowed Semin
ary at Quebec. They have another reason for
so doing. The College (already a monopoly)
becomes almost an exclusive school for the
families of the Government officers, and the
few who, through their means, have, in York,
already attained a pecuniary independence out
of the public treasury. The College never was
intended for the people, nor did the Executive
endow it thus amply that all classes might apply
to the fountain of knowledge."*

As time passed the College founded by Sir
John Colborne did good work as a secondary
school for people of wealth, but all attempts
to make it popular with the mass of the people
proved ineffective. The Legislature gave it an
annual grant somewhat unwillingly. f The
buildings were erected, and part of the annual
expenses paid from advances made by the
King s College Council.

By an Act passed in 1839$ there was an
attempt made to raise the College to the dignity
of a temporary university. This action dis
pleased the Council of King s College because
it tended to delay the opening of lectures in
that institution. In 1849, when the Baldwin
University Bill made an independent corpora-

* See volume in Library of Parliament, Ottawa, pp. 190
and 191.

t See D. H. E., Vol. III., p. 123.
$ See D. H. E., Vol. III., pp. 170 and 171.

69

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

tion of Upper Canada College, that institution
was indebted to the University for nearly
$40,000, which was never repaid.*

In 1831 the Methodists began to build at
Cobourg the Upper Canada Academy, which
was to be open to all religious denominations.
They felt that although Upper Canada College
was non-sectarian in a legal sense, yet,
inasmuch as the principal and professors were
Anglican clergymen, the institution was essen
tially an Anglican College.

At this time the Rev. Egerton Ryerson was
editor of The Christian Guardian newspaper,
the official organ of the Methodist Conference.
In an editorial, April, 1831, he thus refers to
the proposed Upper Canada Academy : " It
is the first literary institution which has been
commenced by any body of ministers in ac
cordance with the frequently expressed wishes
of the people of Upper Canada. The Methodist
Conference have not sought endowments of
public lands for the establishment of an institu
tion, contrary to the voice of the people as

expressed by their representatives

Desirous of promoting more extensively the
interests of the rising generation and of the
country generally, we have resolved upon the
establishment of a Seminary of Learning we

* For the later history of Upper Canada College see
" History of Upper Canada College," by Principal George
Dickson.

70

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

have done so upon liberal principles we have
not reserved any peculiar privileges to our
selves for the education of our children ; we
have published the constitution for your exam
ination ; and now we appeal to your liberality
for assistance On the character
istics of the system of education which it is
contemplated to pursue in the proposed Semin
ary, we may observe that it will be such as to
produce habits of intellectual labour and activ
ity; a diligent and profitable improvement of
time; bodily health and vigour, a fitness and
relish for agricultural and mechanical,
as well as for other pursuits; virtuous
principles and Christian morals. On the
importance of education generally we may
remark, it is as necessary as the light
it should be as common as water,

and as free as air Education

among the people is the best security of a good
government and constitutional liberty ; it yields
a steady, unbending support to the former, and
effectually protects the latter. An educated
people are always a loyal people to good gov
ernment; and the first object of a wise govern
ment should be the education of the people. An
educated people are always enterprising in all
kinds of general and local improvements. An
ignorant population are equally fit for, and are
liable to be, slaves of despots and the dupes of
demagogues; sometimes, like the unsettled

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

ocean, they can be thrown into incontrollable
agitation by every wind that blows; at other
times, like the uncomplaining ass, they tamely
submit to the most unreasonable burdens. . .
Sound learning is of great worth even in reli
gion; the wisest and best instructed Christians
are the most steady, and may be the most use
ful. If a man be a child in knowledge he is
likely to be tossed to and fro, and carried about
with every wind of doctrine, and often lies
at the mercy of interested, designing men ; the
more knowledge he has the safer is his state.
If our circumstances be such that we have few
means of improvement, we should turn them
to the best account. Partial knowledge is bet
ter than total ignorance; and he who cannot
get all he may wish, must take heed to acquire
all that he can. If total ignorance be a bad and
dangerous thing, every degree of knowledge
lessens both the evil and the danger."*

Ryerson wrote this when he was only twenty-
eight years of age, but it foreshadows the
fundamental principles upon which he later at
tempted to base a national system of education.

It is interesting to note that in this same
year the United Presbytery of Upper Canada
were discussing the establishment of a Literary
and Theological Seminary at Pleasant Bay, in
Prince Edward County. This seminary never
was established, but the agitation for it led to

* See copy of letter in D. H. E., Vol. II., pp. 7 and 8.

72

Education in Upper Canada, 1^83 to 1844

the founding of Queen s University, at King
ston.

While Methodist and Presbyterian clergy
were forming plans for academies, the mem
bers of the Legislative Assembly were debat
ing a series of resolutions on the School Re
serves and the failure of the people of Upper
Canada to secure the free Grammar Schools
for which the Crown Lands were appropriated
in 1798. Several things are made plain in
these resolutions regarding the attitude of the
popularly elected branch of the Legislature.
The following stand out prominently :

1. That the existing Grammar Schools were
wholly inadequate to perform the work for
which they were created.

2. That the real intentions of the Crown
in setting apart the immense School Reserves
in 1798 had never been carried out.

3. That the successive Canadian Administra
tions had been largely concerned in appropria
ting the lion s share of these Reserves for
University education.

4. That the School Reserves of 1798, with
proper management, would be now (1831)
sufficiently productive to give great assistance
to education if applied in accord with the real
wishes of the people.

5. That the money received from these
School lands from time to time ought to be

73

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

paid in to the Receiver-General and disposed
of only by vote of the Legislature.

Further protests were made against the
exclusive nature of King s College charter, and
the Assembly was assured by Sir John Col-
borne that some changes would be made. As a
matter of fact, on the 2nd of November, 1831,
Lord Goderich, the British Colonial Secretary,
in a lengthy communication to Governor Col-
borne, showed that His Majesty s Government
was fully seized of the situation in regard to
the charter of King s College. Lord Goderich
said,* " I am to convey through you to the
Members of the Corporation of King s College,
at the earnest recommendation and advice of
His Majesty s Government, that they do forth
with surrender! to His Majesty the charter of
King s College of Upper Canada, with any
lands that may have been granted them." Lord
Goderich then proceeds to intimate that a new
charter will be granted by the Legislature of
Upper Canada. Lord Goderich further pro
ceeds to give some very sound advice concern
ing the necessity of mutual forbearance among
a people of diverse religious creeds.

In the Assembly there was shown an intelli
gent grasp of the educational needs of the
country and a determination to secure better
schools. Had the Executive Council and

* See copy of despatch in D. H. E., Vol. II., p. 55.
t This the College Council positively refused to do.

74

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

Legislative Council been equally zealous in the
cause of education, the fathers and mothers of
the generation which profited from Ryerson s
reforms might themselves have had the advan
tage of good schools.

The following extracts from an address to
His Excellency, Sir John Colborne, will show
the temper and wishes of the Assembly : " We,
His Majesty s dutiful and loyal subjects, the
Commons of Upper Canada in Provincial
Parliament assembled, most respectfully beg
leave to represent that there is in this Province
a very general want of education ; that the in
sufficiency of the Common School fund [the
total Government grant for schools in 1831
was $11,200] to support competent, respect
able, and well-educated teachers, has degraded
Common School teaching from a regular busi
ness to a mere matter of convenience to trans
ient persons, or common idlers, who often
teach the school one season and leave it vacant
until it accommodates some other like person
to take it in hand, whereby the minds of our
youth are left without cultivation, or, what is
still worse, frequently with vulgar, low-bred,
vicious, or intemperate examples before them
in the capacity of monitors."* The address
proceeded to state that there was urgent need
of a Government fund to secure larger grants
for teachers salaries, and asked His Excellency

* See Journals of Assembly, U. C., 1831, p. 40.

75

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

to lay before the Colonial Secretary a plan to
set aside one million acres of waste land in
Upper Canada for the support of Common
Schools.

In this Address the Assembly virtually said
to the Crown, " Give us some fixed capital as a
source of revenue and we will speedily re
organize our schools." The Assembly knew
what was needed and knew how to remedy
the existing condiions, but was powerless
because the Crown revenue was subject only to
the control of the Executive Council.

The session of 1832-33* was very active
from an educational point of view. The
Assembly was informed by His Excellency
that the Crown had consented to give over
to the Legislature, for the support of Grammar
Schools, control of the 258,330 acres of School
lands, being the balance of the original grant
of half a million acres made in 1798, and from
which had already been made extensive grants
to endow King s College and Upper Canada
College. Much of the remainder of this land,
which was now vested in the Legislature, was
not of a superior quality. It had also been
selected in township blocks and naturally had

* The previous session, William Lyon Mackenzie had
been expelled from the Assembly because of his criticism of
the Governor, in his newspaper, the Colonial Advocate. It
is interesting to note that Mackenzie s criticisms of the Gov
ernor were largely based on His Excellency s actions in
regard to education.

7 6

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

very little value until settlements were made
in surrounding townships.

The Assembly prepared an Address to His
Majesty praying for a grant of one million
acres of Crown lands for the establishment and
support of Township Common Schools. As a
measure of immediate relief for these schools,
a bill was passed by the two branches of the
Legislature, and assented to by His Excellency,
providing for two years an additional grant of
$22,000. This sum was allotted to the several
Districts, approximately in proportion to popu
lation, but no Board of Trustees was to receive
any of this grant unless they secured for their
teacher a sum equal at least to twice the
Government grant.

The most significant feature of the session,
however, was a Common School Bill, intro
duced into the Assembly by Mr. Mahlon Bur-
well, and read a first time. The bill proposed
to repeal all previous Common School legisla
tion; to establish a General Board and also
District Boards of Education ; to grant 10,000
to Common Schools as a Legislative grant and
to assess a further 10,000 on the rateable pro
perty of the Districts.

This bill, had it become law, would have
anticipated Ryerson s legislation by nearly
twenty years, and it is interesting to note the
comments made upon it by that gentleman, who
was at this time editor of the Christian Guar-

77

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

dian. The Guardian of January I5th, 1834,
expressed a general approval of the plan of
taxation but was totally opposed to the appoint
ment of Boards of Education. After showing
that the principle of local taxation was bor
rowed from the New England States, where it
was working satisfactorily, Ryerson says :
" The next leading feature of the bill is the
appointment of a General Board of Education
and also District Boards of Education. This
is proposed to be left to the Governor, or per
son administering the Government, a proposi
tion, in our opinion, radically objectionable. It
makes the system of education, in theory, a
mere engine of the Executive, a system which
is liable to all the abuse, suspicion, jealousy
and opposition caused by despotism; and it
withholds from the system of Common School
education, in its first and prominent feature,
that character of common interest and har
monious co-operation which, as we humbly con
ceive, are essential to its success, and even to
its acceptance with the Province. Education is
an object in which the Government, as an
individual portion of the Province, and the
people at large possess, in some respects, a com
mon interest, consequently they should exercise
a joint or common control. . . . And in an
equitable and patriotic administration of
Government, the more its agents and the
people s agents are associated together in pro-

78

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

moting the common weal, the more strongly
will mutual respect and confidence and co
operation between the people and the Govern
ment be established, the less room there will be
for Executive negligence, or partiality, or
popular or local abuse ; and the less opportunity
there will be for either despotic oppression or
demagogue misrepresentation."

In 1834 there was a General Election, which
resulted in the return to the Assembly of a
large majority in favour of reform principles,
and wholly opposed to the arbitrary and aristo
cratic ideas of the Legislative Council. Bid-
well, Rolph, and William Lyon Mackenzie
were three leading spirits in the new House.

When the Assembly opened the Governor
laid before the members a despatch from the
Colonial Office, stating His Majesty s readi
ness to transfer 240,000 acres in the settled
townships in return for the School lands which
were in township blocks and not then saleable.

A bill was passed by the Legislature renew
ing for two years, 1835 an d J836, the increased
grant of 5,650 for Common Schools.

A grant of 200 was also made to
Mechanics Institutes at York and a grant of
100 to one at Kingston.

Considerable time was spent in the Assembly
upon two bills which were rejected by the
Executive Council. One was a bill to regulate
Common Schools which would have given them

79

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

a thorough organization and made them sub
ject to popular control by elected Boards and
Superintendents. The Executive Council had
no faith in control by the people. They
doubted whether " the respectable yeomanry of
the country were capable of choosing suit
able Superintendents. The other was a bill to
amend the charter of King s College. These
amendments were designed to remove all reli
gious tests and to have the College governed
by a Council, half of whom were to be ap
pointed by the Assembly and half by the Legis
lative Council. The only reasons given by the
Council for rejecting these amendments were
that they knew of no university so governed
and that a university must have as a basis
some established form of religion. In the
meantime, while the hide-bound worshippers
of European traditions who made up the
Council were delaying the active work of
King s College, the youth of Upper Canada,
preparing for the learned professions, were
compelled to seek university advantages in
the United States or Great Britain. More than
this, owing to the lack of advantages in their
own country, many who could otherwise have
afforded it were wholly deprived of the higher
education and training necessary for the pro
fessions they had in view.

The Legislative Council at this time, and
for many years afterwards, made boasts of
their loyalty to the Crown, and upon some

80

Education in Upper Canada, i/tfj to 1844

occasions arrogated to themselves and their
friends a monopoly of all loyal spirit in
Upper Canada, and yet they firmly refused to
surrender the charter and endowment of
King s College when requested and even urged
to do so by His Majesty s Colonial Secretary.*
From 1831 to 1835, the Council refused to
accept any substantial amendments made in
that charter suggested by the Assembly,
although Lord Goderich had, in 1831, made it
quite clear that His Majesty s Government
wished the question of the charter to be settled
by the Upper Canada Legislature

When, upon the 6th of May, 1835, Sir John
Colborne sent to the Colonial Secretary the
King s College Charter Amendment Bill passed
by the Assembly, he urged the immediate open
ing of King s College, although he had de
clared to the College Council that " not one
stone should be placed upon another " until the
charter was amended. It may also be gathered
from this despatch to Lord Glenelgt that Sir
John Colborne accompanied it with a draft of
amendments which he thought would be accept
able to both branches of the Legislature of
Upper Canada. His Lordship was too astute a
politician and too thoroughly informed con
cerning Canadian public opinion to be easily
misled. Sir John Colborne, as a concession to

* See letter of Lord Goderich of Nov. 2nd, 1831, to Sir
John Colborne.

tSee D. H. E-, Vol. II., p. 214.
6 8l

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

the Assembly, proposed that five out of seven
of the governing body should be permanently
of the faith of the Church of England. The
other two members were to be the Lieutenant-
Governor and the Archdeacon of York ! Lord
Glenelg, in reply, says : " I cannot hesitate to
express my opinion that this plan claims for
the Established Church of England privileges
which those who best understand and most
deeply prize her real interests would not think
it prudent to assert for her in any British
Province on the North American Continent.
... I would respectfully and earnestly impress
upon the Members of both these Bodies
[Assembly and Council] the expediency of en
deavouring, by mutual concessions, to meet on
some common ground. Especially would I beg
the Legislative Councillors to remember that,
if there be any one subject on which, more
than others, it is vain and dangerous to oppose
the deliberate wishes of the great mass of
the people, the system of national instruction
to be pursued in the moral and religious edu
cation of youth is emphatically that subject."*
Lord Glenelg concludes by referring the ques
tion of amending the charter back to the Legis
lature of Upper Canada and states that His
Majesty will act as mediator only if the two
branches of the Legislature fail to agree and
then only upon their presenting a joint Ad
dress.

* See copy of letter in D. H. E., Vol. II., pp. 213 and 214.

82

CHAPTER IV.

EDUCATION IN UPPER CANADA FROM
1783 TO 1844 (Continued).

DURING the Legislative session of 1836, Sir
John Colborne was replaced by Sir Francis
Bond Head as Lieutenant-Governor. It would
seem that the difference of opinion between Sir
John Colborne and Lord Glenelg of the
Colonial Office was responsible for the former s
asking to be recalled. His last official act as
Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, and
one intimately connected with educational con
troversy at a later date, was to sign patents for
the endowment of forty-three Anglican
rectories out of the Clergy Reserve lands.

In the Legislature no real progress was made
in education, although a lengthy report* and a
draft School Bill were presented by a member
of the Assembly, Doctor Charles Duncomb.
This report was based on a visit paid by Doctor
Duncomb to the Eastern, Middle and Western
United States. It is interesting and emphasizes
the importance of a suitable education for
women.

* See Appendix to Journals of Assembly of U.C., 1836.
See also Assembly Journals for 1836, pp. 213 and 214.

83

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

The most important event of the year in its
after effects upon education in Upper Canada
was the formal opening of Upper Canada
Academy* at Cobourg, under a Royal Charter
secured by Egerton Ryerson.

In resigning his position as editor of The
Guardian, the official organ of Methodism,
Ryerson referred to the condition of education
in Upper Canada, emphasizing the supreme
importance of elementary instruction for every
child in the country. It is also interesting to
note that at this date, when he had probably
never dreamed of having any official connec
tion with elementary education, he should have
touched the very root of the problem by point
ing out the utter impossibility of making any
real progress without a body of educated and
trained teachers.

The Legislature of 1837 set at rest for a few
years the vexed question of an amendment to
King s College charter. The majority of the
Legislative Council were stoutly opposed to
any modifications that would lessen the control
of the Anglican Church, but they saw that pub
lic opinion was strong enough to prevent the
opening of the college until amendments were
made. They also saw that they were running
a risk of having the charter cancelled and a
new one granted by the Crown. They accord
ingly accepted certain amendments proposed

*See Chapter I.

8 4

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

by the Legislative Assembly. These amend
ments* gave ex-officio seats on the College
Council to the Speaker of the two branches of
the Legislature and to the Attorney-General
and the Solicitor-General of Upper Canada;
they removed from members of the
Council and from professors every sem
blance of a religious test except the
following declaration : " I do solemnly
and sincerely declare that I believe in the
authenticity and Divine Inspiration of the Old
and New Testaments and in the Doctrine of
the Holy Trinity " ; they removed absolutely
from religious tests all students and candidates
for degrees; they made the Judges of His
Majesty s Court of King s Bench visitors
instead of the Lord Bishop of Quebec, and
vested the appointment of future presidents in
His Majesty instead of conferring that office
ex-o-fficio upon the Archdeacon of York.

Steps were taken at once to place the college
in a position to begin work. A very able and
comprehensive schemef of studies and courses
was drawn up by the President, Dr. Strachan,
and everything promised favourably, when the
Rebellion broke out and all operations were
suspended.

The following sketch of the Common

* See Journals of Assembly of Upper Canada for 1837,
Legislative Library, Toronto.

t See D. H. E., Vol. III., pp. 93-98.

85

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

Schools of this period, written by Mr. Malcolm
Campbell, an old teacher of Middlesex, is
inserted because it is believed to be typical of
Upper Canada conditions. Mr. Campbell
began to teach in 1835 :

" The School Houses, during the time I
taught, were built of round logs about 14 x 16
ft, with clapboard roofs and open fireplaces.
A window sash on three sides for light, a board
being placed beneath them, on which to keep
copies and slates. There were long hewn
benches without backs for seats. There were
no blackboards or maps on the chinked walls.
There was a miscellaneous assortment of
books, which made it very difficult to form
classes. Cobb s and Webster s Spelling-books
afterwards gave place to Mavor s. The Testa
ment was used as a Textbook, a supply of
which was furnished by Rev. Benjamin
Cronyn, afterwards Bishop of Huron. The
English Reader, and Hume and Smollett s
History of England were used by the more ad
vanced classes. Lennie s Grammar, and Dil-
worth s and Hutton s Arithmetics, and the His
tory of Cortez Conquest of Mexico were used,
also a Geography and Atlas, and a variety of
books. Goose-quills were used for pens, which
the teacher made and mended at least twice
a day. The hours of teaching were somewhat
longer than at present, and there was no recess.
The number of scholars varied from 15 to 30,

86

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

and school was kept open eight to ten months
in the year with a Saturday vacation every two
weeks. Teachers, after having taught school
for some months, underwent a pretty thorough
oral examination by the District Board of Edu
cation, and were granted First, Second, or
Third Class certificates according to their
merits, real or supposed. They had the
Government grant apportioned to them accord
ing to their standing. Mr. Donald Currie, in
the section west of me, drew annually $120 on
the ground of his high qualifications as well as
his teaching Latin. My share of the grant was
$80. Mr. Benson east of me drew $50 . . .
The Government grant was what the teacher
mainly depended on for cash. The rest of his
pay, which varied from $10 to $16 a month,
Government grant included, was mostly paid
in " kind," and very hard to collect at that.

" The Trustees in these early days assumed
duties beyond what they now possess. In
engaging a teacher, they examined him as to
his qualifications in the three R s and as much
farther as any of themselves knew. They
fixed the rate bill which each scholar should
pay, usually at a dollar and fifty cents a
quarter; and any family sending more than
three scholars should go free, as well as the
children of widows. . . . The teacher was ex
pected to board round at that rate of pay.
He usually boarded in one or two houses near

87

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

the school, doing chores morning and evening.
The Trustees assessed each scholar with half
a cord of wood during winter, which was
scantily supplied; sometimes the teacher and
bigger boys went with an axe to the woods to
make up the deficiency. The trustees were to
examine the school quarterly, and sign the
Quarterly Reports so that the teacher might
draw the Government grant."*

The following " Rules for the Government
of Common Schools " prescribed by the Board
of Education for the Niagara District is taken
from Gourley s " Statistical Account of Upper
Canada, 1817-1822," Vol. II.; Appendix, pp.
116-119:-

i. The Master to commence the labours of
the day by a short prayer.

* 2. School to commence each day at 9
o clock and five hours at least to be given to
teaching during the day, except on Saturdays.

" 3. Diligence and Emulation to be cherished
and encouraged among the pupils by rewards
judiciously distributed, to consist of little pic
tures and books, according to the age of the
scholar.

" 4. Cleanliness and Good Order to be in
dispensable; and corporal punishment seldom
necessary, except for bad habits learned at

* See D. H. E., Vol. III., pp. 131, 132.

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

home lying, disobedience, obstinacy and per-
verseness these sometimes require chastise
ment ; but gentleness even in these cases would
do better with most children.

5. All other offences, arising chiefly from
liveliness and inattention, are better corrected
by shame, such as gaudy caps, placing the cul
prits by themselves, not permitting anyone to
play with them for a day or days, detaining
after school hours, or during a play afternoon,
or by ridicule.

6. The Master must keep a regular cata
logue of his scholars and mark every day they
are absent.

7. The forenoons of Wednesday and Sat
urday to be set apart for Religious Instruction ;
to render it agreeable the school should be
furnished with at least ten copies of Barrows
Questions on the New Testament, and the
Teacher to have one copy of the key to these
questions for his own use; the teacher should
likewise have a copy of Murray s Power of
Religion on the Mind, Watkin s Scripture
Biography, and Blair s Class Book, the
Saturday Lessons of which are well-calculated
to impress religious feeling.

Note. These books are confined to no
religious denomination, and do not prevent the
Masters from teaching such Catechism as the
parents of the children may adopt.

89

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

" 8. Every day to close with reading publicly
a few verses from the New Testament, pro
ceeding regularly through the Gospels.

" 9. The afternoons of Wednesday and
Saturday to be allowed for play.

10. A copy of these Rules to be affixed up
in some conspicuous place in the School-room,
and to be read publicly to the Scholars every
Monday morning by the Teacher."

No doubt much good teaching was done in
schools nominally governed by similar codes
of instruction. The teacher is always the real
force in a school and good teachers are never
slaves to mechanical rules.

These " rules," however, suggest a form of
punishment that was largely used in those days
even by good teachers and has not yet been
wholly banished from the schoolroom ridi
cule. Here we see it offered as an improve
ment upon corporal punishment. It may have
had its advantages over the brutal punishments
sometimes inflicted in the old days, but I think
Dr. Johnson was right in saying that a reason
ably severe corporal punishment was better for
both teacher and pupil than either " nagging
or ridicule. No doubt the systems of Bell and
Lancaster were responsible for the use recom
mended of ridicule in the Niagara District in
1820.

One important Bill, An Act to Provide

90

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

for the Advancement of Education,"* became
law during the session of 1839. This Bill set
apart 250,000 acres of waste lands for the
support of District Grammar Schools, made
provision for additional schools in districts
where they were needed, and provided for the
erection of new buildings and assistant masters.
The Bill also placed the revenue and manage
ment of these schools under the Council of
King s College. In this way King s College,
Upper Canada College, and the District Gram
mar Schools all the machinery of higher edu
cation were brought under central authority.

From a careful reading of a despatchf sent
by Sir George Arthur to the Colonial Office,
in connection with the Act referred to above, it
seems quite clear that the land grant of 250,-
ooo acres now set apart for District Grammar
Schools was the balance of the original 549,-
217 acres granted by the Crown in 1798 for
the endowment of Free Grammar Schools and
a University. Thus, after forty years, the
intentions of the Crown regarding Grammar
Schools were to be realized. But only in part,
because the Act of 1839 did not make the
Grammar Schools free.

It was confidently hoped by many of the
King s College Council, and especially by the

* See Journals of Legislature of Upper Canada for 1839.
Legislative Library, Toronto. See also copy of bill in
D. H. E., Vol. III., pp. 170, 171-

t Reprinted in D. H. E. See Vol. III., pp. 173-183.

91

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

President, Rev. Dr. Strachan, that when the
college charter was amended in 1837 nothing
would interfere with the immediate execution
of plans for building and opening King s Col
lege. Elaborate plans and models of a build
ing were prepared and sent out from England,
an architect was employed, advertisements for
tenders for a building were inserted in various
newspapers, and the contract was about to be
awarded, when Sir George Arthur hurriedly
convened the Council and ordered an investi
gation into the finances of the College.

His suspicions had evidently been awakened
by some returns on College affairs presented in
response to an Address by the Assembly. The
report of the special audit committee* ap
pointed by the Council revealed a startling con
dition of affairs and incidentally a strong argu
ment against allowing any body or corporation
to handle public funds without an annual audit
by someone responsible to Parliament.

The Bursar, the Hon. Joseph Wells, a pro
minent member of the Legislative Council, had
diverted to his own use and that of his needy
friends some 6,374, and the sum of 4,312
had been loaned to the President, Dr. Strachan.
There was in use a very primitive systemf cf
book-keeping, and on the whole just such man-

* See proceedings of King s College Council, 1837-1840.

Pal

mnc:

92

t See Report of T. C. Patrick, Vol. II., manuscript
Minutes King s College Council, pp. 68-73.

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

agement as might have been expected from the
close corporation which had, up to 1837, made
up the King s College Council. There was also
much mismanagement of the financial affairs
of Upper Canada College. These revelations
delayed building operations until 1842.

On December 3rd, 1839, the last session of the
Legislature of Upper Canada was opened by
Charles Poulett Thompson, afterwards Lord
Sydenham. A Bill was passed granting a
charter to the " University of Kingston."
When the Bill was introduced into the Assem
bly, the name was to be the " University of
Queen s College."* Why the change was made
does not seem very clear, but perhaps it was
because the promoters of the Bill were not cer
tain that Her Majesty had given her consent to
the use of her name in the Act. The Act
placed the College largely under the control
of the Presbyterian Church and wholly under
control of Presbyterians, but no religious tests
were to be exacted from students or graduates
except in Divinity. The I5th section of the
charter authorized the representative of Her
Majesty in Canada to pay from the revenues
of King s College a sum sufficient to establish
a Chair in Divinity. This arrangement doubt
less was the result of a despatch from the
Colonial Office some years previous to the
effect that any modification of King s College

* See D. H. E., Vol. III., Chap. XVI., pp. 284-299.

93

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

charter should provide for a Divinity Pro
fessor of the Church of Scotland. Some
readers of the present day may ask, Why not
also for other religious denominations
Methodists, Baptists, and Congregationalists ?
The answer is simple. The Churches of Eng
land and Scotland were national churches in
Great Britain and Ireland. The Anglican
Church in Canada in 1840 claimed to be an
Established Church, and as the Clergy Reserve
controversy was then unsettled, her claim had
reasonable expectation of realization. Had
her claim been allowed, it would have
strengthened any claim the Presbyterian
Church might have made also to rank as an
Established Church.

This Canadian charter to the " University of
Kingston was cancelled by the Crown with
the consent of the Presbyterian Church in
Canada, and a Royal Charter issued to the
University of Queen s College." By this
Royal Charter, Queen s lost the Divinity Pro
fessorship which, by the Canadian charter, was
to be established out of King s College founda
tion. The Crown had power to grant a charter
but no power to interfere with the funds of
King s College, which were subject to the
Canadian Legislature.

The Commission* appointed by the Legis-

* The members were : Rev. John McCaul, Rev. Henry
Grasett and Secretary Harrison.

94

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

lature in 1839 to prepare a report* on educa
tion gave a comprehensive account of the con
dition of schools, but without throwing much
new light upon them. The total number of
pupils in the District Grammar Schools was
still about 300, but the number in the Common
Schools was estimated at 24,000, or about one
in eighteen of the total population. As to the
nature of the schools attended by these 24,000,
there is abundant evidence to prove that they
were very inefficient. The Rev. Robt. McGill,
of Niagara, says : I know the qualifications
of nearly all the Common School teachers in
this district, and I do not hesitate to say that
there is not more than one in ten fully qualified
to instruct the young in the humblest depart
ment." The London District Board for 1839
says : The Masters chosen by the Common
School Trustees are often ignorant men, barely
acquainted with the rudiments of education
and, consequently, jealous of any school
superior to their own."f

The Grammar Schools had been gradually
improving since their establishment, but were
still very far from supplying the real needs of
the people. They had no uniformity in course
of study or textbooks, and were under no

* See D. H. E., Vol. III., pp. 243-283. Also Appendix to
Journals of Assembly for 1840.

t See D. H. E., Vol. III., p. 266.

95

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

inspection. In fact, lack of supervision was
the weakest spot in the whole school system.

Lord Durham, in his famous Report,* refers
to education in Upper Canada thus : "A very
considerable portion of the Province has
neither roads, post offices, mills, schools, nor
churches. The people may raise enough for
their own subsistence and may even have a
rude and comfortless plenty, but they can sel
dom acquire wealth; nor can even wealthy
landowners prevent their children from grow
ing up ignorant and boorish, and from occupy
ing a far lower mental, moral and social posi
tion than they themselves fill. . . . Even in the
most thickly peopled districts there are but few
schools, and those of a very inferior character ;
while the more remote settlements are almost
entirely without any."

The Committee recommended better salaries,
normal schools for training teachers, British
textbooks, an Inspector-General of Education,
and a Provincial Board of School Commis
sioners. Looking at the matter three-quarters
of a century later, we can see that really good
schools were not then immediately possible.
Schools, like everything else, cannot be created
at command. They are the result of evolution.
Upper Canada College illustrates this. Ex
pensive buildings were erected and capable

* See Lord Durham s Report, p. 66.

9 6

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

masters secured in England, and yet the school
was not really efficient for many years. The
country was largely a wilderness. The people
were comparatively poor and their first care
was to provide the necessities of life. The sad
side to the picture is that there was among the
mass of the people so little real interest in
education and so little appreciation of its
worth. People will never struggle to acquire
that of which they feel no need. It seems quite
clear, too, that the struggle for civil and reli
gious freedom and equality hindered the devel
opment of a good school system. The latter
could scarcely be possible before the former
had triumphed. The natural leaders of the
people and those who by superior attainments
and education were fitted for leadership were
straining every nerve and mustering every
known resource to overthrow a corrupt oli
garchy. Even among the spiritual leaders of
the people there was no unity of purpose. In
stead of working shoulder to shoulder with one
another for the moral and intellectual growth
of their people, they were in many cases
sapping their strength through acrimonious
and recriminating discussions of state church,
sectarianism, Clergy Reserves, endowment and
grants. When once it was finally settled that
Upper Canada was to have responsible govern
ment and that all races and all creeds were to
enjoy equal civil, religious and political rights,

7 97

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

it was much easier to lay a solid foundation for
the development of efficient schools.

To this nothing contributed more than the
Municipal Act of 1841. It supplied the neces
sary local machinery, working in harmony and
in close connection with a central government.
It seemed to leave almost everything to local
initiative and local control, thus appealing to
local patriotism. In reality it gave a central
authority power to direct by laying down broad
general principles, and it stirred up a maximum
of local self-effort by distributing Provincial
grants.

Sydenham s first Speech from the Throne to
the Legislature of the United Canadas in
1841 referred to the necessity of a better sys
tem of Common Schools. During the session
the Legislature passed an elaborate Act for
this purpose, and although it proved not to be
of a practical nature it showed an earnest
desire on the part of the Legislature to im
prove the Common Schools. The Act appro
priated 50,000 per year to be distributed
among the Common Schools in proportion to
the number of pupils between 5 and 16 years of
age in each district. It provided a Superin
tendent of Education for the United Canadas
and prescribed his duties. It established popu
larly-elected Township Boards and passed
certain rates to be assessed on the ratepayers.

98

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

The most significant feature of the Bill was
that it contained the germ which later devel
oped into our elaborate system of Separate
Schools. Early in the session, forty petitions
were presented asking that the Bible be used in
the schools. There was also a petition from
Rev. Dr. Strachan and the Anglican clergy
asking that Anglican children be educated by
their own pastors and that they receive a share
of public funds for support of their schools.
The Roman Catholics also petitioned against
some principles of the Common School Bill
then before the House.

These things will probably explain why the
Bill as passed contained a clause allowing any
number of dissentients (not necessarily Roman
Catholics) in Township Schools to withdraw
and form a school of their own, and also a
clause which created for cities and incorporated
towns a School Board, half of whom were
Protestant and half of whom were Roman
Catholic. The Catholics and Protestants might
work together and maintain schools in com
mon, or they might constitute themselves into
separate committees, each committee virtually
controlling its own schools.

Thus we see that while the Assembly were
fighting to break down a system of sectarian
ism in university education, they were intro
ducing into the Common Schools a policy that
led to divisions on account of religion.

99

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

During the session of 1841, the Upper
Canada Academy at Cobourg secured incor
poration as Victoria College with university
powers, and also a grant of 500, which later
was made annual. Here, too, the Legislature
was granting public money to a sectarian
institution, although it should be noted that no
religious tests were to be exacted of any stu
dents, and that five public officers, the Presi
dent of the Executive Council, the Speakers of
the two branches of the Legislature, and the
Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General for
Canada West were to be ex-officio visitors and
members of the Victoria College Senate.

Early in 1842, Queen s University was
opened for the reception of students. Later in
the same year the corner-stone of King s Col
lege was laid with imposing ceremony by Sir
Charles Bagot, the Governor-General. In 1843
the King s College professors began lectures.
This gave three colleges with university powers
in active operation in Upper Canada in 1843.

In May, 1842, the Governor-General ap
pointed the Hon. Robert Jameson, Vice-
Chancellor of Upper Canada, to be Chief
Superintendent of Education, and the Rev.
Robert Murray, of Oakville, to be Assistant
Superintendent for Upper Canada. Mr. Mur
ray was a scholarly gentleman, but possessed
no special qualifications for so important an
office. It seems probable that as early as 1841

IOO

PROPERTY OF
RYERSON R-

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844.

Sydenham had some thought of giving the
position to Ryerson. It also seems probable
that Sir Charles Bagot knew of this and had
some communication with Ryerson in respect
to it. It is more than likely that Ryerson had
been too active, both in opposing the arbitrary
acts of the Legislative Council and in promot
ing the interests of his own Church, to be
readily acceptable to His Excellency s Council,
nearly all of whom were Churchmen.

It was soon discovered that the Common
School Act of 1841 could never be put into
operation. It had only a single merit good
intentions. In 1843 it was decided to amend
it and enact a separate Bill for Upper and
Lower Canada. That for Upper Canada was
introduced by Hon. Francis Hincks. Speaking
of the Bill* he says : " The principle adopted
in the School Bill of 1843 is this : The Gov
ernment pays a certain amount to each Town
ship the property in that Township pays an
equal amount; or if the Councillors elected by
the people choose it, double the amount. This
forms the School Fund, which is divided
among the school districts, the Trustees of
which raise the balance of the teacher s salary
by a Rate Bill on the parents of the children.
The system is as simple as it is just. . . .
In framing this system, gentlemen, you will

* See " Reminiscences of His Public Life," by Sir Francis
Hincks, pp. 175-1 77- Library of Parliament, Canada.

101

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

observe that, as in all other instances, the late
Ministry have divested the grant of all local
patronage. Everything has been left to the
people themselves ; and I feel perfectly con
vinced that they will prove themselves capable
of managing their own affairs in a more satis
factory manner than any Government Boards
of Education or visiting Superintendents could
do for them.

" The new School Act provides also for the
establishment in each Township of a Model
School the teacher of which is to receive a
larger share than others of the School Fund,
provided he gives gratuitous instruction to the
other teachers in the Township, under such
regulations as may be established.

1 There is also provision for a Model School
in each county, on a similar plan, but, of
course, of a higher grade. It is left to the
people themselves or their representatives in
the several municipalities, to establish these
Model Schools or not, as they deem expedient.
But it is provided that as soon as a Provincial
Normal School shall be in operation (and the
system will never be complete without one) the
teachers of the Model Schols must have certifi
cates of qualification from the professors of
the Normal School."

This Act of 1843 i s much more elaborate
in its provisions than any preceding legislation
affecting Common Schools in Upper Canada.

1 02

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

It provided for county superintendents ap
pointed by wardens and for township, town or
city superintendents appointed by the municipal
council. It would seem that in many points
the duties of these two classes of superintend
ents would conflict, as both were allowed to
examine and appoint teachers, and both were
to visit schools. Every section was to have a
Board of Trustees elected by ratepayers, and
to these trustees was given charge of school
property and the regulation of course of study,
including choice of textbooks. It would seem
that full local control was given except in the
matter of certificating teachers and regulating
the government grant.

Either Protestants or Roman Catholics might
petition for a Separate School on the applica
tion of ten or more resident freeholders, but
such schools when established were maintained
and controlled by the same machinery as other
schools. Model Schools were to receive a
larger grant from the Legislature. A county
superintendent could issue unlimited or limited
certificates, but all certificates issued by a town
ship, town, or city superintendent were limited
to the division in which they were issued and
were valid for one year only.

The marked weaknesses of the Act may be
summed up as follows :

i. Possible conflict of authority between
county and local superintendents.

103

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

2. No uniformity of course of study or text
books.

3. No accepted standard of qualification for
teachers.

4. No method provided for training of
teachers, as a Normal School was merely sug
gested, and Model Schools were optional.

5. No provision made to secure competent
local superintendents. Any man might be ap
pointed.

But with all its deficiencies the School Bill
of 1843 was a proof that the Legislature earn
estly desired to promote elementary education.
It was, no doubt, felt by many public men, and
especially by the Governor, that no man was
so well qualified as Ryerson to direct that sys
tem at headquarters. To pave the way for
Ryerson s appointment, Rev. Robert Murray
was made Professor of Mathematics in King s
College, and in September, 1844, Ryerson be
came Assistant Superintendent of Education
for Upper Canada. He was to have leave of
absence for travel and for investigation into
the school systems of Europe.

As events proved, Ryerson s appointment as
Superintendent of Education soon bore fruit
in a more efficient system of Common Schools.
But university affairs were still in a state of
chaos.

The amendments to the charter of King s
College made in 1837 were disappointingly un-

104

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

fruitful of any practical changes. The College
remained in charge of Anglicans, and was in
reality, if not in a legal sense, a Church of
England institution. The question may natur
ally be asked, why did the legislation of 1837
not effect greater changes? The answer is
simple. In 1837 the seat of government was
at Toronto, and the five ex-o~fficio Government
officers could easily attend meetings of King s
College Council. But after the Act of Union
in 1841 the seat of government was moved
first to Kingston and later to Montreal. It
then became wholly impossible for the five lay
members of King s College to attend regular
meetings in Toronto. The result was that the
affairs of King s College remained practically
in the hands of the president and professors,
who made no real efforts to adapt the College
to the needs of the people of Upper Canada.
Bishop Strachan, the President, could not for
get his original plans in securing the charter,
and was still trying to realize them as far as
possible. In a petition which he presented to
Parliament in 1845 against the Draper Uni
versity Bill, he makes his real object very clear.
He says : " Above all things, I claim from the
endowment the means of educating my clergy.
This was my chief object in obtaining the
Royal Charter and the Endowment of King s
College ; and was indeed the most

valuable result to be anticipated by the institu-

105

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

tion. . . . This is a point which never can
be given up, and to which I believe the faith
of Government is unreservedly pledged."* As
time went on and the history of the Royal
grant of 1798 came to be more fully discussed
and understood, the determination of the people
grew more and more fixed to secure such modi
fications in the King s College Charter as would
make it a national instead of a sectarian insti
tution.

The proposal of Baldwin, introduced in
1843, was statesmanlike, and although it failed
to pass owing to the early resignation of his
Ministry, it is interesting because it outlined
in part the principles upon which the Univer
sity question was finally settled. The Bill
proposed to create a University of Toronto,
and leave King s College as a theological semin
ary without power to confer degrees. Queen s,
Victoria, and Regiopolis f were to become
affiliated in connection with Toronto Univer
sity, and were to surrender their powers to
confer degrees. In return they were to receive
certain grants from the King s College endow
ment. Toronto University was to become the
only degree-conferring power in Upper Canada.
Baldwin had the Governor s consent to bring

* See D. H. E., Vol. V., p. 137.

t Regiopolis, a Roman Catholic college incorporated by
the Legislature in 1837, had not, at this time, degree-con
ferring powers.

106

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

in this Bill, and had his Ministry remained in
power it would doubtless have passed. The
Bill had the active support of Queen s and
Victoria, and the bitter opposition of Dr.
Strachan.*

Dr. Ryerson summed up the whole situation
in a reply to an eloquent and very able argu
ment of Hon. W. H. Draper, who appeared at
the Bar of the House of Assembly as Counsel
of King s College Council, in opposition to the
Bill. Dr. Ryerson concludes as follows : The
lands by which King s College has been so
munificently endowed, were set apart nearly
fifty years ago (in compliance with an applica
tion in 1797 of the Provincial Legislature) for
the promotion of Education in Upper Canada.
This was the object of the original appropria
tion of those lands a noble grant, not to the
Church of England, but to the people of Upper
Canada. In 1827 Doctor Strachan, by state
ments and representations against which the
House of Assembly of Upper Canada protested
again and again, got 225,944 acres of these
lands applied to the endowment of the Church
of England College. Against such a partial
application and perversion of the original Pro
vincial objects of that Royal grant the people
of Upper Canada protested; the Charter of
King s College was amended to carry out the

* See his petition presented to House of Assembly, 1843,
against Bill.

107

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

original object of the Grant ; the general objects
of the amended Charter have been defeated by
the manner in which it has been administered,
and the University Bill is introduced to secure
their accomplishment; and the Council of
King s College employ an advocate to perpetu
ate their monopoly. The reader can, therefore,
easily judge who is the faithful advocate and
who is the selfish perverter of the most splendid
educational endowment that was ever made for

any new country I argue for no

particular University Bill; but I contend upon
the grounds of right and humanity, that Pres
byterians, Methodists and all others ought to
participate equally with the Episcopalians in
the educational advantages and endowments
that have been derived from the sale of lands,
which, pursuant to an application from the
Provincial Legislature, were set apart in 1797
by the Crown for the support of Education in
Upper Canada."*

In looking back upon the situation from our
vantage-ground, covering a lapse of nearly
three-quarters of a century, we may marvel
that all parties were not ready to compromise
upon the basis of a purely secular and national
university. But secular, state-owned colleges
are a very modern growth, and few men among
our grandfathers had the courage to champion
such institutions. An educational institution

* See D. H. E., Vol. V., pp. 49-59.

108

Education in Upper Canada, 1783 to 1844

without some religious basis had uncanny asso
ciations. Therefore, it is not a matter for sur
prise that many good men were prepared to
mutilate the University Endowment of Upper
Canada, and dissipate it among sectarian col
leges. Such, to a large degree, would have
been the result had the Draper Bill of 1845
become law.

The Draper Government made a further
attempt to settle the vexed question in 1846.
John A. Macdonald (afterwards Sir John A.
Macdonald) made another unsuccessful at
tempt in 1847. The Hon. Robert Baldwin then
became Premier, and after securing the Report
of a Commission on University Affairs, he
introduced and passed a University Bill in
1849. This Act has been many times amended,
but the final result has been to preserve for the
people of Upper Canada the University Endow
ment, and to remove from the management
every semblance of sectarian control. The
University has become the property and the
pride of all classes, irrespective of race, politics,
or religion.

109

CHAPTER V.

RYERSON S FIRST REPORT ON A SYSTEM
OF ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION.

" The true greatness of a people does not
consist in borrowing nothing from others, but
in borrowing from all whatever is good, and
in perfecting whatever it appropriates."
M. Cousin.

This quotation from the eminent Frenchman
admirably illustrates the spirit of Ryerson s
first Report* and the draft of proposed legis
lation accompanying it. His Report contains
comparatively little that is original, being made
up of ninety per cent, of quotations from
Horace Mann s Report and from reports of
eminent European statesmen and educators.
And yet the Report is none the less valuable
because of the quotations, nor does a reading
of it tend to lessen one s respect for the writer.
On the contrary, the aptness of the quotations
and the skilful way in which Ryerson marshals
his proofs, show his statesmanship and genius

* See " Report on a System of Public Elementary
Instruction for Upper Canada," by Egerton Ryerson, pub
lished 1847, consisting of 191 pages.

Note. Unless otherwise specified, all quotations in this
Chapter are from the above report.

1 10

First Report on Elementary Instruction

for organization. He saw enough during his
European and American tours of investigation
to convince him that Canada could, with profit
to herself, borrow many things from other
peoples. His shrewd common sense and inti
mate first-hand knowledge of Canadian condi
tions told him exactly what ought to be done,
and he wisely allowed others to tell in his
Report their own stories. His position was
that of a skilled advocate bringing forth wit
ness after witness to give evidence to the sound
ness of his theories.

He sets out by defining education, and al
though his definition is not scientific in a psy
chological sense, it is essentially correct it
points to the school as an agency to promote
good citizenship. " By education I mean not
the mere acquisition of certain arts or of cer
tain branches of knowledge, but that instruc
tion and discipline which qualify and dispose
the subjects of it for their appropriate duties
and employments of life, as Christians, as per
sons of business, and also as members of the
civil community in which they live."

Ryerson then points out that in Upper Can
ada the education of the masses has been sacri
ficed to the education of a select class. He
wishes to see a system of universal education
adapted to the needs of the country. The
branches of knowledge which it is essential
that all should understand should be provided

in

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

for all, and taught to all; should be brought
within the reach of the most needy and forced
upon the attention of the most careless. The
knowledge required for the scientific pursuit of
mechanics, agriculture, and commerce must
needs be provided to an extent corresponding
with the demand and the exigencies of the
country; while to a more limited extent are
needed facilities for acquiring the higher edu
cation of the learned professions." The Report
sets forth a great array of proof drawn from
the United States, Britain, Switzerland, Ger
many, and other European countries, to show
that the productive capacity of the people, their
morality and intelligence, are in direct propor
tion to their schools and institutions of learn
ing. Ryerson lays down as fundamental that
any system adopted for Upper Canada must
be universal in the sense of giving elementary
instruction to all and practical in the sense of
fitting for the duties of life in a young country.
He goes to considerable trouble to show that
in his view ,the practical includes religion and
morality, as well as a development of the
merely intellectual powers.

Ryerson was no narrow ecclesiastic, but still
he could conceive of no sound system of ele
mentary instruction that did not provide for
the teaching of the essential truths of Chris
tianity. He was decidedly not in favour of
secular schools or secular colleges. And yet he

112

First Report on Elementary Instruction

believed that religious instruction in mixed
classes was possible, and pointed out in his
Report how it might be conducted. He made
a very sharp distinction between religion and
dogma, between the essential truths of Chris
tianity and sectarianism. Dogma and sectarian
teaching, in his opinion, had no place in schools
except in those where all the pupils were of a
common religious faith. What he pleads for
in his Report is the recognition of Christianity
as a basis of all instruction, and the teaching
of as much of the Bible as could be given with
out offending any sectarian prejudices. To
teach a child the dogmas and spirit of a Sect,
before he is taught the essential principles of
Religion and Morality, is to invert the pyramid,
to reverse the order of nature, to feed with
the bones of controversy instead of with the
nourishing milk of Truth and Charity.
I can aver from personal experience and prac
tice, as well as from a very extended enquiry
on this subject, that a much more comprehen
sive course of Biblical and Religious instruc
tion can be given than there is likely to be
opportunity for doing so in Elementary
Schools, without any restraint on the one side
or any tincture of sectarianism on the other,
a course embracing the entire history of the
Bible, its institutions, cardinal doctrines and
morals, together with the evidences of its
authenticity." The Report goes on to show

8 113

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

how from Ryerson s viewpoint the absence of
religious teaching in the schools of the Ameri
can Union was having a damaging effect upon
the moral fibre of the national life. He further
illustrated by reference to what he saw in
France, Germany, and Ireland, how religious
instruction might be given without causing any
denominational friction or unpleasantness.

After defining the aim and scope of a
national system of education, and giving it a
religious foundation, the Report outlines the
subjects that should be taught in Elementary
Schools, and illustrates in almost every case
how these several subjects should be presented.
While the basis of the instruction proposed is
the three R s reading, including spelling;
riting, and rithmetic yet it is remarkable
to what an extent Ryerson proposed to go in
enriching " the Common School programme.
Indeed, as one reads the Report he is inclined
to repeat the old adage : " There is nothing
new under the sun." Almost every subject
introduced into Ontario schools during the last
quarter of the nineteenth century, and many
which yet, in the twentieth century, seem to
have an insecure foothold, and are by many
denominated " fads," were included by Ryer
son in his memorable Report of 1846, and the
arguments he uses in favour of their adoption
would not seem out of place if used by an
advanced educator of the present day. He

114

First Report on Elementary Instruction

pleads for music, drawing, history, civics, in
ductive geography, inductive grammar teach
ing, concrete number work, oral instruction,
mental arithmetic, nature study, experimental
science, book-keeping, agriculture, physical
training, hygiene, and even political economy.
He illustrates some German methods of teach
ing reading that many Ontario teachers fondly
think were originated in their own country.

Ryerson from Canada, Horace Mann from
Massachusetts, Sir Kay Shuttleworth from
England, besides many others, about this time
paid visits to Prussia, and went home to recom
mend the adoption of much that they saw.
These men were acute observers. They recog
nized that the Germans had learned something
that was not generally known by other teach
ers. How are we to explain it? Had the Ger
man teachers by accident blundered upon better
methods of teaching than were practised by
other nations ? Not so. The German methods
were the natural result of the German phil
osophy. The work of Herbart, Froebel, and
other thinkers, was bearing its natural fruit,
and many of the improvements introduced into
the Canadian schools by Ryerson and practised
by Canadian teachers, perhaps in an empirical
way, were far-away echoes of principles labor
iously worked out by German scholars.

Ryerson s remarks on teaching Biography
and Civil Government seem almost like an echo

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

from some modern school syllabus. Indi
viduals preceded nations. The picture of the
former is more easily comprehended than that
of the latter, and is better adapted to awaken
the curiosity and interest the feeling of the
child. Biography should, therefore, form the
principal topic of elementary history; and the
great periods into which it is naturally and
formally divided, and which must be dis
tinctly marked, should be associated with the
names of some distinguished individual or indi
viduals. The life of an individual often forms
the leading feature of the age in which he lived
and will form the best nucleus around which
to collect, in the youthful mind, the events of

an age, or the history of a period

Every pupil should know something of the
Government and Institutions and Laws under
which he lives, and with which his rights and
interests are so closely connected. Provision
should be made to teach in our Common
Schools an outline of the principles and con
stitution of our Government; the nature of
our institutions ; the duties which they require ;
the manner of fulfilling them; some notions of
our Civil, and especially our Criminal Code."

The second part of Ryerson s Report is
wholly concerned with the machinery of a
System of Public Elementary Instruction for
Upper Canada. The Report, after giving an
outline of the various classes of schools in

116

First Report on Elementary Instruction

France and Germany, recommends for Canada
a system as follows : Common or Primary
Schools for every section of a township ; Dis
trict Model Schools, which would correspond
with the German Real or Trade Schools ; Dis
trict Grammar Schools, which would corres
pond with the German Higher Burgher Schools
and Gymnasia; and, completing all, one
or more Provincial Universities. The
Report also suggested that as Districts
became more populous each would in time be
able to support, say three Model Schools,
and these might specialize, one training
for agriculture, another for commercial life,
and a third for mechanical or industrial life.

Normal Schools were also recommended for
the training of teachers, and elaborate argu
ments set forth showing their benefits. The
example of France, Germany, Ireland, and the
United States is quoted to show how these
schools would secure better teachers, and that
better teachers would mean better schools.
Ryerson believed that Normal Schools would
elevate teaching to the rank of a profession.
He believed that the people were intelligent
enough to choose good teachers in preference
to poor ones if the good ones were at hand.
He also pointed out how a good teacher would
be able to economize the child s time and ad
vance him much faster than an indifferent
teacher.

117

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

The Report then deals with the subject of
textbooks. We need to remember that in
Upper Canada at this time there was no con
trol of textbooks. Each local Board or each
teacher made a selection. In the majority of
cases the matter regulated itself. Pupils used
what they could get. With many of the people,
a book was a book, and one was as good as
another. The utmost confusion prevailed.
There had been many complaints that some of
the books used were American and anti-British
in tone. By 1846 the enterprise of Canadian
publishers had driven out many of the Amer
ican texts, but in some districts they were still
in common use." * In reference to this, Ryer
son says : " The variety of textbooks in the
schools, and thf objectionable character of
many of them, is a subject of serious and
general complaint. All classification of the
pupils is thereby prevented; the exertions of
the best teacher are in a great measure par
alyzed; the time of the scholars is almost
wasted ; and improper sentiments are often in
culcated." The Report suggests that this mat
ter must be under central control and not left
to any local board or district superintendent.
To fully appreciate the importance of this

* A Report made to the Education Office, for 1846, shows
that there were in use in Upper Canada schools 13 Spelling,
107 Reading, 35 Arithmetic, 20 Geography, 21 History, and
1 6 Grammar texts, besides 53 different texts in various
other subjects.

118

First Report on Elementary Instruction

matter we need to remember that books meant
more sixty years ago than they do to-day in
any system of instruction. The better the
teacher the less he is dependent upon a book,
especially in such subjects as arithmetic, gram
mar, geography, or history. But in 1846 the
teachers were in many cases wholly helpless
without books. A boy went to school to " mind
his book." Rote learning, working problems
by a rule laid down in the book, studying
printed questions and answers, were largely
what was meant by " schooling." Bad as such
a system was, its evils were increased when the
books were especially unsuitable. Ryerson
praised very highly the series in use in the
National Schools of Ireland, and later he intro
duced them into Canada.

Public men in Upper Canada who took an
interest in education had long recognized that
the Common Schools were sadly in need of a
stronger central control, and some system of
inspection. But how to secure these safeguards
and yet not destroy the principle of local con
trol was no easy problem to solve. The town
ship superintendents were not educators. They
often were intelligent men, but as a class were
without any knowledge of how to guide
schools or inspire teachers to nobler things.
They received from 10 to 20 a year for their
services, which sum was as good as wasted.
The Act of 1841, and that of 1843, had made

119

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

provision for local superintendents of educa
tion, and had also defined their duties, but the
Act had made no provision to secure the due
performance of their orders. They were with
out power except such as the District and
Township Boards voluntarily allowed them to
assume. They might make suggestions and
give advice, but with that their legal functions
were at an end.

When M. Cousin, in 1836, visited Holland
to examine into the system of primary instruc
tion in that country, the Dutch Commissioner
who had founded the system said to him : Be
watchful in the choice of your inspectors ; they
are the men who ought to be sought for with
a lantern in the hand." Ryerson recognized
the truth of this, and in his Report laid it down
as essential to any efficient system.

His report on the control that should be
exercised directly by the Government I shall
quote entire.

(i) To see that the Legislative grants
are faithfully and judiciously expended ac
cording to the intentions of the Legislature;
that the conditions on which the appropriations
have been made are in all cases duly fulfilled.

(2) To see that the general principles of
the law as well as the objects of its appropria
tions are in no instance contravened.

(3) To prepare the regulations which re
late to the general character and management

1 20

First Report on Elementary Instruction

of the schools, and the qualifications and char
acter of the teachers, leaving the employment
of them to the people and a large discretion as
to modes of teaching.

(4) To provide or recommend books from
the catalogue of which Trustees or Committees
may be enabled to select suitable ones for the
use of their schools.

(5) To prepare and recommend suitable
plans of school-houses and their furniture and
appendages as one of the most important sub
sidiary means of securing good schools a sub
ject upon which it is intended by me, on a
future occasion, to present a special report.

" (6) To employ every constitutional means
to excite a spirit of intellectual activity and
enquiry, and to satisfy it as far as possible by
aiding in the establishment and selection of
school libraries and other means of diffusing
useful knowledge.

(7) Finally and especially, to see that an
efficient system of inspection is exercised over
all the schools. This involves the examina
tion and licensing of teachers, visiting the
schools, discovering errors and suggesting
remedies as to the organization, classification
and methods of teaching in the schools, giving
counsel and instruction as to their manage
ment, carefully examining the pupils, ani
mating teachers, trustees and parents by con
versations and addresses, whenever practicable,

121

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

imparting vigour by every available means to
the whole school system. What the Govern
ment is to the system and what the teacher is
to the school, the local inspector or superin
tendent of schools should be within the limits
of his district."

This plan made the Local Superintendent
responsible for the examination and licensing
of teachers according to regulations laid down
by the Department. With this important ex
ception it will be seen that the functions of the
Government as exercised through the Depart
ment of Education are substantially the same
to-day as they were outlined in Ryerson s first
report.

The concluding part of the report dealt with
what Ryerson called " Individual Efforts," and
under this heading he said some very sensible
things. He emphasized the importance of
parents taking an interest in the school, of
clergymen and magistrates visiting the school,
of good school libraries, of Teachers Insti
tutes, of debating clubs, and of every agency
that would assist in stimulating intellectual
life.

122

CHAPTER VI.

RYERSOWS SCHOOL BILL OF 1846.

THE; year 1846 will ever be memorable in the
annals of school legislation in Upper Canada,
because it established the main principles upon
which all subsequent school legislation was
founded. As already pointed out, the Act of
1843 was largely a failure because it did not
provide adequate machinery for the enforce
ment of its provisions. No important school
legislation was undertaken during 1845 * n
anticipation of Ryerson s report. After
making his report, Ryerson drafted a Bill
which, with a few trifling emendations, became
the Common School Act of 1846. It will assist
us to an intelligent grasp of future legislation
if we examine this Act with some care.

It first defined the duties of the Superin
tendent of Schools. He became the chief
executive officer of the Government in all
school matters. He was to apportion among
the various District Councils (there were
twenty at this time) in proportion to the school
population, the money voted by the Legislature
for the support of common schools (the total
Legislative grant for 1846 was 20,962 to

123

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

2,736 schools) and see that it was expended
according to the Act; he was to supply school
officers with all necessary forms for making
school returns and keep them posted as to
school regulations; he was to discourage un
suitable books as texts and for school libraries
and to recommend the use of uniform and ap
proved texts ; he was to assume a general direc
tion of the Normal School when it became
established ; he was to prepare and recommend
plans for school-houses, with proper furniture ;
he was to encourage school libraries, and finally
he was to diffuse information generally on
education and submit an annual report to the
Governor-General.

The Act established the first General Board
of Education.* It was to consist of the Super
intendent of Education and six other members
appointed by the Governor-General. This
Board was to manage the Normal School, to
authorize texts for schools and to aid the
Superintendent with advice upon any subject
which he should submit to it.

The Act provided for a Normal and Model
School. It required each Municipal District
Council to appoint a Superintendent of Schools.
No qualification was fixed for the District
Superintendent. It would have been useless to

* The one in existence from 1823 to 1833 was not
established by Parliament but by the Lieutenant-Governor
by the authority of the Imperial Government.

124

Ryerson s School Bill of 1846

do so, because there were no men technically
qualified for such positions. The only thing
to do was trust to the District Council to choose
the best man available. The District Municipal
Council was also instructed to levy upon the
rateable property of the District a sum for
support of schools at least equal to the Legis
lative grant. They were to divide each town
ship, town or city into numbered school sec
tions. They were also given power by by-law
to levy rates upon any school section for the
purchase of school sites, erection of school
buildings or teachers residences in that section.
The District Superintendents became very
important officers, and upon their learning,
zeal, integrity and tact must have depended
much of the success or failure of the schools of
this period. They were required to apportion
the District School Fund, consisting of the
Legislative grant and Municipal levy, among
the various school sections in proportion to the
number of children between five and sixteen
years of age resident in the section, and pay
these sums to the teacher on the proper order
being presented; to visit all schools in their
Districts* at least once a year and report on
their progress and general condition ; to advise
trustees and teachers in regard to school man-

* Five Districts had, in 1846, more than 200 schools each,
the average for the Province being 155 schools for each
District.

125

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

agement; to examine candidates for teachers
certificates, and grant licenses, either temporary
or permanent, to those who were proficient ; to
revoke licenses held by incompetent or unsuit
able teachers; to prevent the use of unauthor
ized textbooks; and finally, to make an annual
report of the schools in their districts to the
Chief Superintendent.

The Act declared that all Clergymen, Judges
of the District Court, Wardens, Councillors
and Justices of the Peace were to be school
visitors, with the right to visit any school or
schools in their districts except Separate
Schools. They were given authority to ques
tion pupils, conduct examinations and advise
the teachers, or make reports to the District
Superintendent. They were especially charged
with the duty of encouraging school libraries.
One remarkable power was conferred upon
them. Any two school visitors of a district
were allowed to examine a candidate for a
teacher s license and grant such license if they
saw fit for a term not exceeding one year in a
specified school.

There are two simple explanations* of this
clause in Ryerson s School Act. He may have
wished to interest school visitors in the schools

* Ryerson also gives as a reason his desire to make a
gradual transition from the old system of license by
Township Boards to the new plan of granting licenses only
by the District Superintendent. See D. H. E., Vol. VII.,
P- 155-

126

Ryerson s School Bill of 1846

by giving them some power. He may have
wished to create a local power to act in an
emergency if a school became vacant through
any cause during a school term. In many cases
the Superintendent lived fifty to seventy-five
miles from the remote corners of his District,
and with the primitive means of communication
in use at that time, it was an advantage to have
some local body with authority to license
teachers.

It is a matter for regret that at the present
time the various officials mentioned here as
school visitors, as well as parents generally, are
so seldom seen inside the public schools. True,
we now have trained teachers, and teaching has
so far become a profession that few school
visitors would care to question pupils, but the
very presence in the school-room from time to
time of educated men and women, and especi
ally those occupying public positions, has a
beneficial effect upon both teachers and pupils.
Pupils feel that the work of the school must
be important if it is worthy of the attention of
busy and successful men. Teachers are en
couraged to make a good showing and are
often hungry for the few words of sympathy
and encouragement that would naturally ac
company such visits. The school can never
fully realize its function as a social institution
unless the best citizens take an active interest
in it. This was uppermost in Ryerson s mind

127

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

when he penned that part of his report relating
to individual efforts in promoting the welfare
of the school.*

The Act of 1846 defined in detail how school
trustees were to be elected. In all previous
Acts the whole Trustee Board was elected
annually. This gave to the Board no con
tinuity of corporate life. One Trustee Board
might have certain plans and make a certain
bargain with a teacher. The new Board might
have different plans and repudiate the con
tracts of its predecessor. Ryerson s Bill solved
the difficulty by having trustees elected for
three years, one to retire annually. Trustees
duties were not materially different from those
of trustees to-day except in one or two par
ticulars. They had to raise by a rate bill upon
parents of pupils attending school such sums as
were required over and above the two school
grants for payment of the teacher s salary and
the incidental expenses of the school ; they were
required to make provision by which the chil
dren of indigent parents were exempted,
wholly or in part, from school rates ; and they
were required to select school books from a list
sanctioned by the Department of Education.
In Ryerson s draft bill he proposed that the
rate bill should be levied upon the property of
the section. This would virtually have given
free schools. The Legislature of 1846

* See Report in D. H. E., Vol. VI., p. 208.

128

Ryer son s School Bill of 1846

amended this clause and made the rate bill
assessable only upon parents of children in
actual attendance. Ryerson says of these rate
bills : * " The evils of the present system of
school rate bills have been brought under my
notice from the most populous townships and
by the most experienced educationists in
Canada. When it is apprehended that the rate
bill in a school section will be high, many will
not send their children to the school at all-
then there is no school; or else a few give
enough to pay the teacher for three months, in
cluding the Government grant ; or even after
the school has commenced, if it be found that
the school is not so large as had been antici
pated, and that those who send will conse
quently be required to pay more than they had
expected, parents will begin to take their chil
dren from school in order to escape the rate
bill as persons would flee from a falling house !
The consequence is that the school is either
broken up, or the whole burthen of paying the
teacher falls upon the trustees, and often as a
consequence a quarrel ensues between them and
the teacher. I have been assured by the most
experienced and judicious men, with whom I
have conversed on the subject, that it is im
possible to have good schools under the present
rate bill system. I think the substitute I pro
posed will remedy the evil. I know of none

* See D. H. E., Vol. VI., p. 76.
9 129

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

who will object to it but the rich and the child
less and the selfish. Education is a public
good ; ignorance is a public evil. What affects
the public ought to be binding upon each indi
vidual composing it. In every good govern
ment and in every good system the interests of
the whole society are obligatory upon each
member of it."

This rate bill, as authorized in 1846, was,
however, an improvement on the old one which
was levied upon parents according to the actual
time of the child s attendance, whereas the
Bill of 1846 levied a tax upon the parents of
children in actual attendance for at least two-
thirds of the whole school term, whether the
children attended regularly or irregularly.

Teachers duties were defined by the Act
much as they are to-day. District Model
Schools were authorized on the same condition
as in the Act of 1843. The clauses in the Act
of 1843 relating to the formation of Separate
Roman Catholic or Protestant schools were
also embodied in the Act of 1846.

Now, what are the distinguishing features
of this School Act that reflect credit upon its
author ? It would be idle to pretend that there
were not in Upper Canada many able men
who saw the weaknesses of the school system
as clearly as Dr. Ryerson. Ryerson s claim to
distinction rests upon the fact that he organized
a system that worked. He not only co-ordin-

130

Ryerson s School Bill of 184.6

ated the several parts of the system, but put
life into it. This was no easy task. The
people were very jealous of their power of
local control, and yet unless this local control
could be subjected to some central control, im
provement was hopeless. It was here that
Ryerson did what no other man had done. He
lessened local, and strengthened central, con
trol, and did it so gradually, so wisely, and so
tactfully, that local prejudices were soothed
and in many cases the people scarcely recog
nized what was being done until the thing was
accomplished. We must not suppose that all
this was completed by the legislation of 1846.
It began then, but its complete evolution was
the work of a quarter-century.

If we ask through what agency Ryerson was
enabled to secure this gradual executive
strength that makes our educational machinery
so effective the answer must be the Legis
lative grant. The Legislature placed the grant
at the disposal of the Superintendent for him
to apportion among the Districts. Here was a
lever of wonderful power, and Ryerson was
quick to perceive its possibilities. If Districts
wished a grant they must conform to certain
requirements. If school sections wished a grant
from the District Superintendent, they, too,
must satisfy certain requirements as to text
books, qualified teachers, building and equip
ment.

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

No doubt the Prussian system gave Ryerson
many hints on this subject, but he knew that
the Canadian spirit was very different from the
docile German spirit fostered by generations
of benevolent paternalism. I think, too, there
can be no reasonable doubt that he received
many practical hints on this point from the
workings of Her Majesty s Committee on
Education formed by the Imperial Parliament.
The history of the world presents no more
significant illustration of how an outside body
may come to exercise an effective control over
various kinds of schools than is presented by
the history of the schools of Great Britain and
Ireland and their control by Her Majesty s
Government through parliamentary grants.

That the leaders of Canadian public opinion
in the years following 1846 saw all that was
involved in Ryerson s gradual strengthening of
central control of educational affairs is made
abundantly clear by the leading editorials in
the press of that period. The Toronto Globe,
which had been established in 1844 by the
Browns, was already in 1846 the leading ex
ponent of advanced liberal ideas in Upper
Canada. As the Globe had been bitterly op
posed to Lord Metcalfe, and had resented
Ryerson s defence of him, it was not to be
expected that Ryerson s appointment as
Superintendent of Education would be satis
factory to that journal, or that his educational

132

Ryersons School Bill of 1846

plans would be leniently criticised. Indeed,
the Globe editor s first objection to Ryerson s
Bill of 1846 was to the great powers conferred
upon the Superintendent and to the irrespon
sible nature of his Commission. The following
is from a Globe editorial of April I4th, 1846;*
We have read a draft of the new School Bill
for Upper Canada brought in by Mr. Draper.
We have not been able to go over all its claims,
but it contains one objectionable principle, viz. :
the appointment and dismissal of the Superin
tendent is vested in the Governor-General per
sonally and not in the Governor-General with
the advice of his Council, as it ought to be.
The whole funds from which the school system
is to derive support are raised by the people of
Canada, and the disposal of them should be
subjected to the control of the House through
the Executive Council. . . . The powers of the
Superintendent are very great and embrace
many points such as the selection of proper
books, etc. A Board of seven Commissioners
to assist the Superintendent is named, but the
Governor may appoint them, or not, and the
Superintendent may take their advice, or not,
and he has also power to prevent interference
at any time, for he is only to receive advice on
all measures which he may submit to them.
The whole of this extensive institution, if the

* See bound volume of Globe in Legislative Library, To
ronto.

133

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

Bill passes, will be lodged in the Governor-
General personally and in the Superintendent,
and they may work it for any purpose that
suits their views." On July I4th, 1846, the
editor of the Globe again criticises the School
Bill, because the Superintendent reports to the
Governor and not to the Governor-General-in-
Council.

These articles are interesting and important.
Why was Ryerson s appointment vested in the
Governor and not in the Executive Council ?
The answer not only throws valuable light
upon the way that Ryerson himself viewed his
office and its relation to the public, but it
incidentally shows how imperfectly responsible
government was established in Upper Canada
in 1846. We should gasp with astonishment in
Canada to-day if it were proposed to vest the
appointment of any public officers in the
Governor-General personally. We allow our
Governors no personal freedom in the conduct
of public affairs. But in 1846 that idea was
not wholly accepted. There still lingered a
feeling that the Crown had certain vaguely-
defined prerogatives, which might be exercised
without let or hindrance from Councillors.
And many who recognized that the British
Crown had little individual freedom of action
in public affairs in Britain could not see that
the same status ought to be established for the
Crown s representative in a colony. Or, to put

134

Ryerson s School Bill of 1846

it in another way, the people did not see how a
colony could be self-governing without being
wholly independent.

Ryerson wished his appointment to be vested
in the Governor, rather than in the Executive
Council, because he thought that by such an
arrangement he was a servant of the country
and not of any political party. He thought
that a Superintendent of Education ought, like
a judge, to be placed beyond the accidents and
turmoil of politics. No doubt that was an
illogical position. Indeed, time showed it to
be so, and that full recognition of the principle
of responsible government required a Minister
of Education responsible directly to the Legis
lature. We can only speculate as to what
would have been the effect upon our schools
had Ryerson s position been looked upon as
political and had he been forced to vacate his
office with every change of government. It
seems doubtful whether our schools would
have improved as rapidly as they did under
the conservative, but truly progressive, policy
of Ryerson.

There is abundant evidence that there were
many in Upper Canada who wished to see the
position of Superintendent closely connected
with politics. A Globe editorial, Jan. 6th,
1847, commenting on Ryerson s report, says:
We expected that when our new Superin
tendent stepped into his ill-gotten office he

135

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

would immediately take measures to make him
self acquainted with the replies to such ques
tions as the following: First, the situation,
condition and number of schools and school-
houses of all kinds in the Province. Second,
the manner in which school trustees, town,
county and district Superintendents had dis
charged their several duties. Third, the desire
manifested by parents generally for the educa
tion of their children. Fourth, the competency
and efficiency of the teachers, their salaries,
etc. Fifth, the kind of school books used, the
school libraries and other apparatus for teach
ing. Had such questions been proposed and
answered, the Superintendent would have had
something to base a report upon. It was but
natural to suppose that an officer whose sole
prospects of success are in the confidence and
co-operation of the people would have taken
some steps to gain that confidence and co
operation, that he would have been desirous by
direct communication with superintendents,
trustees, experienced teachers and influential
persons in the Province of ascertaining their
views and of obtaining their suggestions as to
the best means of promoting the interests of the
noble department over which he had been called
to preside. But no, it is true he was devising
a system of education for Canada, but what
had the wants or wishes of the people to do
with it? The serfs must receive anything I,

136

Ryerson s School Bill of 1846

their lord and master, may import from the
cringing subjects of despotic monarchies. We
are more and more convinced from the ex
amination of this report that Mr. Ryerson is
not competent for the situation which he
occupies."

This is manifestly unfair. Ryerson knew
from previous experience and without any
further special investigation, the answer to
every one of the five questions propounded
above. In 1848, just after the Baldwin-La-
fontaine administration was formed, and
before the newly-formed ministry had met
Parliament, there was more or less discussion
about dismissing Ryerson from his position as
Superintendent of Education. The Globe of
April 29th, 1848, says : Will any man, except
a few of his own clique, say that Egerton Ryer
son should be Superintendent of Education
under a Liberal Government? We apprehend
none. He has done nothing wrong since his
appointment, it is said. We say he has. He
spent many months on the Continent of Europe
and in Britain in amusement or recreation,
professing to get information about things
which every person knew already. . . . We have
had hints of the Prussian system being applic
able to Canada and we feel convinced that he,
who sold himself to the late Administration,
would have readily brought all the youth of
Canada to the same market and placed them

137

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

under the domination of an arbitrary and
coercive power. He had sold their fathers
for pelf, why not sell the sons also? Was he
not in league with that party which would retain
the Province in vassalage to the old Compact
which he had so heartily denounced in former
times? Is he not a member of that Methodist
Committee which bargained away to a worth
less Ministry the Methodist votes for 1,500
to Victoria College? These are most memor
able events in the annals of political corruption.
. . . But we care not if there had been no
ground for complaint since 1844. We know
that Egerton Ryerson sold himself body and
spirit to Lord Metcalfe and that he broached
doctrines of the most unconstitutional kind,
threatening those who were but asking the
common rights of British subjects with the
vengeance of the whole Empire. The man
who holds such views is unfit to be at the head
of the country s education. He would convert
the children of the Province into the most
pliable tools of an arbitrary system."

These articles show clearly that the party
press was not disposed to judge Ryerson by
his work as Superintendent of Education.
They claimed that because he championed Lord
Metcalfe in 1844 he was a partizan, and if a
partizan in 1844 he must still be one in 1848.

Besides a certain amount of political pre
judice, Ryerson had to overcome the many

138

Ryersons School Bill of 1846

points of friction caused by an attempt to work
the Bill of 1846, and when we consider the
ignorance and incompetence among those upon
whom the administration of the Act rested, and
the prejudices against the Act by many who
were supremely selfish, we have to admit that
a less courageous man would have utterly
failed. Many trustees could neither read nor
write. In some cases the District Municipal
Councillors who were parties to school ad
ministration were equally ignorant. District
Superintendents of schools were not always
fitted for such a responsibility. Perhaps half
the whole body of teachers made up a motley
assortment of impecunious tramps. The
Superintendent s report for 1847 shows that
out of 2,572 schoolhouses only 133 were of
brick or stone, and that 1,399 were made of
logs; 1,378 had no playground, and only 163
were provided with water-closets. With many
superintendents, trustees, and teachers miser
ably incompetent, with buildings and equip
ment woefully inadequate, it required a stout
heart to undertake a reformation.

Ryerson had two temperamental qualities
that stood him in good stead ; he had an ideal
ist s faith in humanity, believing that men
would choose the higher if it could once be
shown them; he had besides an infinite
capacity for hard work and for taking pains.
This is fully shown by the way he met the

139

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

many objections to his Bill of 1846. The
bitterest opposition came from the Council of
the Gore District, now the County of Went-
worth, a District from which more progressive
ideas might have been expected. On the loth
November, 1846, this Council* petitioned the
Legislative Assembly against Ryerson s Bill.
They objected to a Provincial Board of Edu
cation and to a Chief Superintendent. They
wished to have re-enacted the School Bills of
1816 and 1820. Among other things the peti
tion says : " With respect to the necessity of
establishing a Normal, with elementary Model
Schools in this Province, your memorialists
are of opinion that however well adapted such
an institution might be to the wants of the old
and densely populated countries of Europe,
where service in almost every vocation will
scarcely yield the common necessaries of life,
they are altogether unsuited to a country like
Upper Canada, where a young man of such
excellent character as a candidate is required
to be to enter a Normal School and having the
advantage of a good education besides, need
only turn to the right hand or to the left to
make his service much more agreeable and
profitable to himself, than in the drudgery of
a common school, at an average of 29 per
annum [the average in Upper Canada for
1845] > nor do your memorialists hope to pro-

* See copy of petition in D. H. E., Vol. VII., pp. 114-116.

I4O

Ryerson s School Bill of 1846

vide qualified teachers by any other means in
the present circumstances of the country than
by securing as heretofore the services of those
whose physical disabilities from age render this
mode of obtaining a livelihood the only one
suited to their decaying energy, or by employ
ing such of the newly-arrived immigrants as
are qualified for common school teachers, year
by year as they come amongst us, and who will
adopt this as a means of temporary support
until their character and abilities are known
and turned to better account for themselves."

This petition was sent to every District
Council in Upper Canada. Some districts
agreed with it, some were indifferent and some
wholly opposed its spirit. Colborne District
Council took a very different attitude. They
praised the Chief Superintendent, warmly ap
proved of a Normal School, and found much
to admire in the legislation of 1846. The fol
lowing from their report will serve as an illus
tration :* " As the Normal and Model Schools
begin to yield their legitimate fruits, and as the
blighting effects of employing men as school
teachers who are neither in manners nor in
intellectual endowments much above the lowest
menials, shall press less and less heavily upon
the mental and moral habitudes of the rising
generation, the great benefits to be derived
from the present Common School Act, and its

* See copy of memorial in D. H. E., Vol. VII., p. 117.

141

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

immense superiority over all former school
laws of Upper Canada, will become more and
more confessed and appreciated. Already that
public apathy which is the deadliest enemy to
improvement is slowly yielding to the necessity
imposed by the present school law upon the
trustees and others of acquiring extended in
formation, of entering with a deeper interest
into all matters connected with Common
Schools and of joining with school visitors,
superintendents and municipal councillors in a
more active and vigilant oversight of them."

Ryerson saw that public opinion must be
educated. The problem was a wider one than
the education of the rising generation in the
schoolhouses. The fathers and mothers and
all who made public opinion must be awakened.
This work Ryerson did in a characteristic
manner. He had been a missionary preacher
of the Gospel; he now became an educational
missionary. He sent carefully-prepared circu
lars to Municipal Councils, to District Super
intendents, to school trustees and to teachers.
He established at his own financial risk, and
without accepting a penny of the profits for
his labour, an educational journal as a means
of communication with the general public. In
the autumn of 1847 ne spent ten weeks in visits
to the twenty-one Districts into which Upper
Canada was at that time divided. He called
District Educational Conventions, lasting each

142

Ryerson s School Bill of 1846

two days. To these were invited teachers,
District Superintendents, School Visitors,
Municipal Councillors and the general public.
The Warden was generally secured as chair
man. During the day, Ryerson discussed the
School Act and its operation. He found that
often the people had been misled and that
trustees who had never made any attempt to
enforce the Act had laid the blame for their
poor school upon the Act of 1846. In almost
every case a frank discussion face to face with
the parties concerned removed unreasonable
prejudices and made friends for the new
Superintendent. In the evening, Ryerson gave
a public lecture. His subject in 1847 was
" The Advantage of Education to an Agricul
tural People." No subject could have been
more appropriate to secure the sympathy of
the mass of the people and to give the lecturer
an opportunity to show what he hoped to do
for Upper Canada.

143

CHAPTER VII.

THE RYERSON BILL OF 1850.

THE Act of 1846 provided that the Municipal
Councils of Toronto and Kingston were to
have the same powers in school matters as the
District Councils. Toronto had at this time
twelve school sections, each with its own
Trustee Board, and each fixing its own text
books and course of study. Such a system was
cumbersome, wasteful, and inefficient, and the
practical mind of Ryerson devised a remedy.
In 1847, the Cities and Towns Act was passed.
This Act required the Municipal Councils of
cities and towns to appoint a School Board of
six members. These six, together with the
Mayor of the Corporation, had full control of
all schools and school property. They could
determine the number and kind of schools and
the texts to be used, but they had no power
either to levy an assessment upon property or
to collect rate bills from parents. Any funds
needed by the School Board in addition to the
Legislative and Municipal grants were to be
levied upon the taxable property of the city or
town by the Municipal Council. But the Act
did not say that the Municipal Council must
grant the sums asked for by the Board of

144

The Ryerson Bill of 1850

Trustees. In Toronto the Council of 1848
refused to levy the necessary assessment, and
the School Trustees were compelled to close
the schools from July to December.

The Toronto Globe* declared that Ryerson
was introducing a Prussian despotism into
Canada. Ryerson said that he desired nothing
Prussian in the Canadian schools except the
method of schoolroom instruction, and claimed
that his new School Bill was almost a literal
transcript of that in force in the State of New
York. Ryerson then set forth the chief advan
tage of the new Bill, viz. : that it gave to the
poor man the right to have his children, how
ever numerous, educated, whereas the rate bill
system compelled him in many cases to claim
free schooling only on the ground of his
poverty. The new School Act was to enable
a poor man to educate his children and still
maintain his self-respect. The school tax was
to be levied not upon the children of the sec
tion, but upon the real property. Ryerson con
cluded as follows : " Wealthy selfishness and
hatred of the education of the poor and labour
ing classes may exclaim against this provision
of the law, but enlightened Christian philan
thropy and true patriotism will rejoice at its
application."

Commenting on Ryerson s letter, the fol
lowing issue of the Globe said: The Doctor

* See editorial, Toronto Globe of May 8th, 1848,
10 145

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

makes a great fuss about the cruel position
of a man who cannot brook to say he was a
pauper under the old system and the delight
ful and enlightened Christian philanthropy
of his new system which places the poor man
and his children upon equal footing with the
rich man and his children. All bunkum, Dr.
Ryerson. If it is hard to have ten or fifty or
one hundred scholars as paupers at present, will
it improve the matter to make the children of
the common schools all paupers? If one class
keep their children away now because the
schools are above their means, and pride won t
let them submit to state the fact to a trustee,
will there not hereafter be a much larger class
whose pride will prevent them sending their
children to what even Dr. Ryerson admits will
be pauper schools? ... Is it not melancholy
that so crooked, so visionary a man as this
should be at the head of the literary institutions
of the country?"

But Ryerson was righting for free schools.
He knew that thousands of children were
growing up ignorant, especially in the large
towns. He was able to show that in the city of
Toronto, out of 4,450 children of school age in
1846, only 1,221 were on the common school
registers and that the average attendance was
scarcely one thousand. Even if it were granted
that another thousand were in attendance at
private and church schools, the fact remained

146

The Ryerson Bill of 1850

that not more than half the children in Toronto
were being educated.

In October, 1848, Ryerson submitted to the
Government a draft School Bill, designed to
remedy the defects in the legislation of 1846-
1848. In a report* which he submitted with
his draft Bill he says : " No law which con
templates the removal of grovelling or selfish
ignorance and the elevation of society by means
of efficient regulations and general taxation for
schools ever has been, or ever will be, popular
with the purely selfish or the listlessly ignorant.
All such laws must be sustained for a time at
least by the joint influence of the Government
and the intelligent and enterprising portion of
the community."

The outcry against free schools and taxation
of property to educate the children of the
poor showed clearly that the time had not yet
come for the realization of his plans, and
Ryerson in his draft Bill restored to towns and
cities the right to impose rate bills upon
parents, at the same time declaring his faith in
the ultimate triumph of free schools.

In February, 1849, Ryerson submitted addi
tions to his draft Bill of the previous October.
Among other changes he recommended addi
tional Superintendents for Districts of more
than 150 schools; District Boards of Exam
iners who would replace the District Superin-

* See copy in D. H. E., Vol. VIII., p. 85.

147

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

tendent and school visitors* in issuing teachers
certificates; Teachers Institutes for lectures
and professional training of teachers; provis
ion for separate schools for coloured children;
school libraries for each section, and also town
ship libraries; township School Boards; a
School of Art and Design, connected with the
Normal School ; provincial certificates for
Normal School graduates; making trustees
personally responsible for a teacher s salary;
the distribution of school funds on a basis of
actual attendance, rather than on the number of
children in the section; better provision for
fixing school sites; more equitable division of
the $200,000 legislative grant between Upper
and Lower Canada, and provision for the ad
mission into the common schools of pupils
from sixteen to twenty-one years of age.

The Baldwin Government entrusted the
handling in the Legislature of the School Bill
of 1849 to the Honourable Malcolm Cameron.
It should be borne in mind that the Legisla
ture met in Montreal and that the Education
Office for Upper Canada was in Toronto.
Dr. Ryerson was, therefore, not in direct com
munication with the Government, nor was he
officially informed from. day to day as to the
progress of the Bill. It should further be

* The report of the Bathurst District Superintendent for
1848 showed 82 teachers certificated by School Visitors
and 42 by the District Superintendent. See Report of
Chief Superintendent for 1848.

148

The Ryerson Bill of 1850

borne in mind that during this session the
Parliament Buildings were burned, the
Governor-General mobbed, and party feeling
strongly aroused, thus creating conditions
favourable for hasty and careless legislation.
It seems to have been taken for granted by the
Legislature that the Bill as brought in was pre
pared by Ryerson. As a matter of fact, Ryer-
son s Bill had, with Cameron s assent, been so
mutilated by an enemy of the Superintendent
that its essential provisions were destroyed. As
soon as Ryerson learned its real nature, he
protested on several grounds, but especially
because it aimed to destroy the usefulness of
the Chief Superintendent ; excluded clergymen
from being school visitors ; destroyed the pro
vincial nature of the school system; injured the
prospects of a Normal School; would subject
teachers to serious loss in collecting their
salaries ; re-established school sections in towns
and cities; made no provision for uniform
textbooks, and because it was cumbersome
and unworkable. After an elaborate analysis
of the Bill, Ryerson intimated that he would
not attempt to administer the law as passed and
that sooner than do so he would resign. The
Government soon ascertained that the Bill
was unsatisfactory to everybody and intimated
to Ryerson that it would not be brought into
operation. This course was followed, and in

149

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

the meantime Ryerson perfected his plans for
a new Bill to go before the Legislature in 1850.

As the Cameron Act of 1849 was never
given effect, it has no interest for us, except
in so far as it shows the evolution of the Act of
1850. During the Parliamentary recess, 1849-
50, the Government issued circular letters to
School Superintendents, ministers and other
official persons, to secure suggestions as to
school legislation. The replies were handed to
Dr. Ryerson by the Hon. Francis Hincks, who
had charge of the School legislation for 1850.

Ryerson s draft of the Bill of 1850 is a
tribute to his practical common sense and is
sometimes called the Charter of the Ontario
School System. Ryerson knew the people of
Upper Canada as few knew them, and he was
quick to see the dividing line between that
which seemed highly desirable and that which
was possible. He moved steadily toward a
distant goal, but was ever educating public
opinion to move with him and seldom showed
impatience over the slow pace of travel, so long
as there was actual progress. He wished to
see free schools, but in this Act contented him
self with securing permissive legislation, which
he believed would soon lead to the adoption
of a free system.

The outstanding feature of the Act was the
strengthening of Trustee Boards by recog
nizing them as corporate bodies with full

150

The Ryerson Bill of

power to manage schools under Government
regulations and full power to levy taxes or
rates upon the District which they represented.
In case the Municipal Council collected school
money, they did it only as a matter of con
venience. Provision was made for securing
school sites, erecting and furnishing new build
ings, electing trustees, holding board meetings,
keeping schools accounts, appointing collectors
for school moneys, providing books and appar
atus, educating indigent children and forming
school libraries. Teachers duties and responsi
bilities were not materially altered. They were,
however, effectually secured against loss of the
full amount of salary promised them by trustee
boards. Adequate provision was made for
school sections composed of adjoining parts of
two or more townships. Provision was made
for Township Boards of Trustees on the re
quest of a majority of the school supporters,
to manage all the schools of a township.
County Boards of Public Instruction were
formed, consisting of the County Superinten
dent and the Trustees of the District Grammar
School. These boards were to meet four times
a year, to hold examinations and license teach
ers. They were to use their influence to estab
lish school libraries and promote the cause of
education. District superintendents were lim
ited to one hundred schools each, and were to
receive one pound per annum for each school,

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

besides necessary travelling expenses. The
Superintendent was no longer the custodian of
school money, but gave orders to the Township
Treasurer to pay to teachers their proper allow
ances. The Superintendent was to visit every
school in his District once each quarter, and to
deliver a public lecture in every school section
once each year. Thus the way was open for the
District Superintendent to become an expert,
giving a minimum of time to clerical work
and a maximum to the encouragement of pupils
and teachers. He was to become a link be
tween the Department of Education on the one
hand and the District Council and Trustee
Boards on the other. He was a local officer,
but his duties were definitely prescribed by a
central authority. Through him the Chief
Superintendent and the Council of Public In
struction were able to keep in touch with
pupils, teachers, school visitors, trustee boards,
county boards, and district councils. School
visitors were given the same privileges as by
the Act of 1846, except the right to grant
licenses to teachers. The General Board of
Education was merged into the Council of
Public Instruction, with duties substantially the
same as those assigned the former body in
1846.

Incorporated towns and cities were no longer
to have school sections, but instead a Board of
Trustees to manage school affairs. Town and

152

The Ryerson Bill of 1850

City School Boards were allowed three ways
of securing the money necessary, in addition to
the school fund, for common school purposes.
The Board might ask the Municipal Council
to levy an assessment for the required sum, in
which case the said Council were bound to
comply with its wishes ; the Board might levy
a rate bill upon the parents of pupils attending
school ; or they might raise the required funds
partly by a rate bill and partly by an assess
ment levied by the Municipal Council.

The only real difference between the methods
of raising money in towns and cities on the one
hand and rural sections on the other, lay in
the plan of deciding how the money was to be
raised. In rural sections the ratepayers assem
bled at the annual meeting, made the decision,
and the trustees carried out their wishes ; in
towns and cities the trustees had full power to
decide upon the method of taxation without
consulting the ratepayers. School trustees in
incorporated villages were governed by the
same rules as trustees of towns and cities, ex
cept in the manner of the annual election.

One very important feature of the new Act
was the setting apart of 3,000 a year for the
establishment and support of school libraries,
and 25 a year for each District Teachers In
stitute. A sum was also set apart for procuring
plans and publications for the improvement of
school architecture. The Chief Superintendent

153

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

was authorized to issue provincial certificates
to Normal School graduates.

The Act of 1850 also made some important
changes relating to Separate Schools, which
will be noted in another chapter.

Dr. Ryerson always felt that he owed much
to the Governor-General, Lord Elgin, for help
ing him to form a public opinion which made
possible the legislation of 1850. That distin
guished nobleman was a graduate of Oxford,
and he never lost an opportunity of helping
forward any movement designed to raise the
intellectual status of the people. But it was
largely Ryerson s unaided efforts that gave
Upper Canada in 1850 such a splendid educa
tional machinery. It was no factory-made plan,
but a system developed step by step out of
partial failures into something better. It was,
like all English law, the result of applying a
common-sense remedy to a clearly proved
weakness.

During the passage through the Legislature
of the Bill of 1850, a debate arose about Ryer
son s salary, and the value of his services to
the country. The following condensed account
of a speech delivered in Parliament in July, by
Hon. Francis Hincks, makes clear the attitude
finally adopted by the Liberal Government to
ward Ryerson, and for that reason has some
historical interest :

154

The Ryerson Bill of 1850

The member for Toronto, Mr. Boulton,
had charged the Administration with buying
the support of the Superintendent of Education
with an increased salary. He had desired, in
bringing forward this question, to make it as
little a political question as possible. He
thought that the great question of education
might be treated without reference to party
differences. He thought it his duty, consider
ing the position which the Reverend Superin
tendent of Education occupied towards the
party with whom he acted, to state his whole
course of conduct towards that gentleman since
he had taken office. It was well known to the
House that the reverend gentleman was en
gaged, before accepting the office which he now
held, in very keen controversy with the mem
bers of the present ministry; he had taken a
course decidedly hostile to them. As writer
for the public press at that time, he had him
self engaged in that contest, though without
personal feeling, as he trusted he had engaged
in every contest of the kind. But there was
undoubtedly on his own part, and on that of
his colleagues, a strong political feeling of
dislike to the reverend gentleman, on account
of the formidable opposition with which they
were met by him. He was appointed to the
office of Superintendent by the late Govern
ment, and he did not blame that Government
for so appointing him; for, if anyone ever

155

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

established strong claims upon a party, it was
the reverend gentleman by his defence of that
administration. The present ministry again
assumed the duties of the Government, and
undoubtedly there was a general feeling among
their supporters that one of the first measures
expected of them was to get rid of the reverend
gentleman in some way or other, and in that
feeling most certainly he sympathized. He had
found, however, bye-the-bye, that those who
were most eager to recommend the Government
to dismiss officials, when they were put into
similar situations, into the municipal councils
for instance, that they did not carry out those
views, that they did not turn out their oppon
ents without a reason for it. There were two
or three ways of removing the Chief Superin
tendent; one was to make the office a political
one; but after the best consideration being
given to the question, it was not considered
advisable to do that, and the proposition to
abolish the office altogether, he was satisfied
would have had the worst possible consequences
on the educational interests of the country,
after observing the benefits of active superin
tendents in New York, and our own Province.
The only other mode then, if these two were
resisted, was to remove the incumbent alto
gether, and then the question came, whether
he had acted in such a manner as to justify his
dismissal. He had often asked this question of

156

The Ryerson Bill of 1850

the persons who urged his dismissal, and they
had never given one good reason to support
the affirmative. He was not one of those who
thought that because a person supported one
Government that he was therefore incapable
of serving faithfully those who succeeded them,
whom he had formerly opposed, always sup
posing, of course, that his office was not a
political one. He could not find that the rev
erend gentleman had entered in the slightest
degree into the field of politics, and as he had
discharged his duties with great zeal and abil
ity, they had no reason to interfere with him.
Then the point was, how they were to act
towards him in his position, and his (Mr. H. s)
determination was to give him the most cordial
support; as a member of the Government he
considered it his duty to do so. He felt it his
duty to give the same support to officers who
came oftener into contact with him, the officials
of the Custom House, and he defied anyone to
say that any political opponent of his had
received less cordial support in the discharge
of the duties of his office than his friends had ;
the efficiency of the service absolutely required
that he should do so. He put himself in com
munication with the reverend gentleman in
reference to this Bill, and as he (Mr. H.) be
lieved that Doctor Ryerson possessed a more
complete knowledge of the school system than
any other person, he thought that any Govern-

157

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

ment would have done very wrong not to have
availed themselves of that knowledge. He
deeply regretted the course which some gentle
men with whom he generally acted had taken
on this matter.

" He would only say now, that he considered
he should be paid the highest salary given to
any officer, for the duties of none were more
onerous or more important. He might remark
that he had not found lawyers in the House
very anxious to reduce the salaries of the
judges, but when it came to civilians, to super
intendents of schools, then five hundred pounds
a year was far too much. Now he considered
the duties of that office as quite equal in im
portance, and requiring equal talents to those
of a Collector of Customs, and thought that
he should not be placed in an inferior position
to them."*

The Toronto Globe, of July i6th, 1850,
speaking on the debate in the Assembly, said :

The debate on Egerton Ryerson s salary
was, we think, just another instance of pander
ing to the cry of the moment. His salary was
sought to be made the same as the Lower Can
ada Superintendent s. Well, the Lower Canada
Superintendent s salary is five hundred pounds,
but it would not do to name that sum for Upper
Canada until the retrenchment committee had

* See issue of Toronto Globe, July nth, 1850, p. 331.

158

The Ryerson Bill of 1850

operated upon Lower Canada. Now, why not
say at once that five hundred pounds is the
proper salary for the Superintendent of Educa
tion of nearly a million people, and stick to it?
We are no admirers of Egerton Ryerson, and
we have always thought, and we think still, that
the present ministry should have turned him
out neck and crop the moment they got into
power ; but we are free to admit that he is a
man of very great talent, who, at any mercan
tile or professional business he might engage
in, would readily make five hundred pounds a
year, and we do think that this sum is as little
as could be assigned to an office of such high
public importance."

This article clearly shows that the Globe
recognized Ryerson s talents and his profes
sional ability, while objecting to him on political
grounds. Mr. George Brown, the Globe Editor,
was too shrewd a man, and had too strong an
interest in popular education, not to see that
Ryerson was working a reformation in school
affairs. The following from a Globe editorial
of September I4th, 1850, is really a tribute
grudgingly paid to Ryerson s efforts :

" While other professions, the clergy, the
lawyers, the physicians, have long gained a cer
tain position and influence in society, and have
assumed the management of their own affairs,
teachers, as a class, have, until lately, stood

159

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

alone, disregarded by the community, and in
many instances treated as beneath the notice
of men infinitely their inferiors in mental
acquirements, and engaged in pursuits certainly
not more important to the well-being of the
community. While others were improving
their circumstances and acquiring wealth and
power, the schoolmaster alone appeared sta
tionary, doomed to drag on a life of poverty
and contempt, and looked upon by parents as
a sort of nurse for their naughty children, who
received their wages for their services, and not
to meddle with the affairs of the world. We
but repeat what we wrote some years ago, prior
to any of Egerton Ryerson s schemes, when
we say that it is a reproach to the Christian
world, that those who prepare the rising gen
eration for entry into business life, should have
been left so long to poverty, and to have occu
pied so low a place in society. Only conceive
a schoolmaster profoundly versed in the vast
variety of knowledge which the human mind
can master, a man who can solve the most
difficult problem in mathematics, and take the
highest flights in astronomy rarely reaching
beyond the mark of a person to be patronized.
To such a man, the constant toil and drudgery
of a school, the annoyance of unruly children
and unreasonable parents, and above all the
pinching poverty to which he is too often sub
ject, present a life of hardship which it is diffi-

i6g

The Ryerson Bill of 1850

cult to conceive. The smith, or the carpenter
of the village, may by industry realize some
thing for the wants of a surviving family, and
the shopkeeper, or the baker, may perhaps
become wealthy; but the idea of a schoolmaster
having any other position than poverty, would
be thought the height of absurdity."

Ryerson believed that if school trustees were
given the option of free schools and power to
enforce taxation for their support, they would
soon abolish rate-bills upon parents. Public
sentiment was rapidly changing. This was
fairly shown by the city of Toronto, where
there were many wealthy men who objected
to free schools, and where private and denom
inational schools were more popular than in
any other part of Upper Canada. In March,
1851, a committee of the Toronto Board sub
mitted to the Chairman a special report show
ing that 3,403 children who should be in the
schools of that city were roaming the streets
and growing up without educational advan
tages of any kind. The report ascribed this
condition of affairs mainly to two causes, rate-
bills and lack of school accommodation, and
concluded by making a strong stand for free
schools.

The Toronto Globe had scoffed at free
schools in 1848. The rapid change that took
place in the viev/s of this journal is a fair index

11 161

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

of the change that was taking place among the
people of Upper Canada in regard to free
schools. I shall, therefore, quote from the
Globe to show the trend of public opinion
on free schools during the early fifties. As
early as January 3Oth, 1851, the Globe said
editorially :

" We are glad to observe that the plan of
free common schools has been adopted at the
recent annual meetings in very many school
sections throughout Upper Canada. The best
gift the people of Canada can confer on their
children is education, sound, practical education
available to all. Public money employed in
educating the masses is a most profitable in
vestment, and we hope the day will soon be
when a good education is open to every child
in the country."

On January 5th, 1852, the Globe expressed
itself as follows:

The most important change proposed in
our present system of common schools, is the
abolition of all direct charges against the par
ents of the children attending, and the support
of these institutes by direct tax on the whole
body of the people. We trust the day is not
far distant when the Reserve and Rectory lands
will be devoted to the support of the common
schools of Upper Canada, the school tax

162

The Ryerson Bill of 1850

abolished, and the unspeakable advantages of a
sound education placed without any charge
within the reach of every child in the Province.
Every effort should be put forth to effect this,
but meantime let us seek to obtain the best
system which our position admits of, and that,
we believe, is an entirely free system supported
by a direct tax. There are many reasons urged
against this proposed change by sincere friends
of education, which are not without weight.
It is said to be unjust and tyrannical to make
people who are childless pay for those who are
blessed with a numerous progeny; it is urged
that parents will value the blessing of educa
tion more, when they are compelled to pay for
it ; it is alleged to be a weakening of the par
ental tie, to take the expense of the education
of the child from the shoulders of the parent.
These arguments will have more or less influ
ence according to the position and character of
the individual who considers them, but we
assert without fear of contradiction that all the
evils which our warmest opponents anticipate
from the introduction of free schools sink into
insignificance beside the frightful consequences
of our children growing up in the blindness of
ignorance, the result which a free system is
designed to avert. No reasonable disinterested
man would place the one class of evils in com
parison with the other. . . .

163

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

Many opponents of free schools, however,
are willing that the children of the poor should
be educated without charge, as they are at
present. Most parents, however, would be, and
are, prevented by their pride from taking ad
vantage of this favour, and we think it highly
desirable that the idea of begging education, or
anything else, should be set as far as possible
from the mind of every Canadian. The chil
dren of the poor should look to the common
schools as a place to which they have a right
to go, having paid a quota of the expense in
proportion to their means, in the same way that
they claim the right to walk the pavement, and
on the same grounds. It is indeed a noble
thought to place the education of the people
in the same position as the protection of the
people and the government of the people, to
make it one of the necessaries of the existence
of a state in peace and security, and to provide
it at the expense of all, for the benefit of all.
With a Government formed as ours is by the
people, and entirely under its control, our only
safeguard against anarchy and confusion is the
intelligence and right of the people. A
thorough system of common school education
is the only means which can ensure these high
advantages. Education ought to be universal,
and to be so, it must be entirely free from all
expense; there must be inducements held out
to the short-sighted, unwilling parent."

164

The Ryerson Bill of 16*50

As I have already shown, free schools had
stronger opposition in Toronto than at any
other point, yet at a large public meeting held
in January, 1852, in St. Lawrence Hall,* there
were only twelve people who opposed a motion
for free schools. Later in the same month
Doctor Ryerson himself attended a public meet
ing in Toronto and discussed the free school
issue. I shall quote from his speechf to show
how skilfully he could use a concrete illustra
tion to influence public opinion. Speaking of
free schools he said he well remembered how
he went to visit one of the public schools of
Boston, the High School, where boys were
prepared for College, yet as free of expense
to all classes as the lowest, and the Mayor of
the city, who accompanied him, wishing to
give a lesson in aristocracy, probably, pointed
out two lads who occupied the same seat. He
told him that one of these was the son of
Abbot Lawrence, the great manufacturer, and
now American minister in England, and the
other was the son of the doorkeeper of the
City Hall, which they had just left. They were
enjoying the same advantages, the son of the
millionaire and the son of the doorkeeper; that
was what he wished to see in Canada, the sons
of our poor have the same opportunity of edu
cational advancement as those of the rich. Did

* See report in Globe of January loth, 1852.
t See report in Globe of January i3th, 1852.

165

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

it appear from this that the rich did not attend
the common schools of Massachusetts? The
Governor of that State, in a speech which he
made lately at Newbury Port, said that if he
had as many sons as old Priam, and was as rich
as Astor, that he would send them to the free
school. There were rich and proud men in
Massachusetts, undoubtedly, who would not
send their children among the poor, and rich
stingy men who objected to be taxed for other
people s children, but they were the exceptions
to the rule. There was one fact that he wished
to mention in connection with the free schools
of Massachusetts. A body of European clergy
belonging to the Catholic Church had gone to
their Bishop in Boston to request him to use
his influence against the free school system.
He returned for answer that he knew the char
acter of the schools, having been educated in
them, and having owed to them his position in
the Church and the world, and would do noth
ing to impair their usefulness."

It would be a mistake to suppose that there
were not valiant champions against the free
school principle, and it would be a worse mis
take to suppose that all the sound arguments
were on the side of free schools. The follow
ing letters from the Reverend John Roaf, a
Toronto clergyman (Congregationalist), will
give a fair idea of the stand taken by those

166

The Ryerson Bill of 1850

who favoured rate bills upon parents. The
first letter, published in the Globe, January 31 st,
1852, is as follows :

I am happy to inform you that school sec
tion No. i, Township of York, including the
village of Yorkville, have this day negatived
a proposal to have a free school, preferring to
give the teacher 60 from the Public funds,
and a right to charge is. 3d. per month for
every child attending the school. The mech
anics and labourers here have thus discharged
the power, for there cannot be any such right,
so wrongfully given them by the School Act,
to educate their own children at the expense of
their more wealthy neighbours. All praise to
their honesty. Thus they will escape from the
pauperizing tendencies of the free school sys
tem. They encourage their schoolmaster with
the hope of being rewarded for making a good
school. They suffer the proprietors of private
schools to maintain a useful competition with
the common school teacher ; they keep up valu
able select schools, and yet in return for the
public fund, they will get free education for the
children whose parents need exemption from
the school fees.

" May we not hope that the city of Toronto
will next year follow this honourable example,
and spurn the unrighteous counsel which is
introducing communism in education to the

167

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

undermining of property and society? The
French people and the Normans ought to serve
as warnings of the abyss to which this plaus
ible socialism is enticing us."

The second letter was published in the To
ronto Globe, February 5th, 1852 :

" The idea of the outlay for education being-
profitable for the holders of property, and thus
justifying the impost, is much like a joke; for
surely no one thinks it necessary to force upon
men of property so great a gain, as they seldom
need be convinced by their poor neighbours
where their true interests lie. Gain indeed;
why, probably three-fourths of the children
now in the Toronto common schools will carry
their education away to the West, and here be
succeeded by others who will similarly want to
use our property for their own benefit. Besides
we might give free education to those who
otherwise would be destitute of it, but make
those purchase it who have the means.

While I thus dwell on the injustice of the
arrangement, I do so because what is unjust
cannot be wise, and not because the futility of
the system is not otherwise apparent. The free
system divests the teacher of all proprietary
and personal interest in his school, and will
speedily render him sycophantic and servile to
his trustees, but haughty and negligent to
wards his pupils and friends. It will throw

168

The Rycrson Bill of 1850

education into the hands of an electioneering
party, and what kind of party that will be in
such places as Toronto, need not be said. It
will destroy all the confidence and love felt
towards the teacher as the employee and friend
of the child s parents, and substitute for them
a cold respect due to the public official. It will
render school attendance desultory and vari
able, because unpaid for, and always to be had
for asking. Instead of the soft, familiar, and
refined circle in which wise parents like to
place their children, it will drive gentle youths
and sensitive girls into the large herds of chil
dren with all the regimental strictness and cold
ness and coarseness by which such bodies must
be marked, and thus, while the child asks bread
you will give him a stone."

The opposition to free schools did not all
come from wealthy property-owners who ob
jected to educating the children of the poor.
Voluntary schools, wholly independent of Gov
ernment control and closely allied with some
church, were already in operation in populous
centres in Upper Canada. The managers of
these schools had to depend wholly upon sub
scriptions and fees. So long as all schools
were supported mainly from rate bills upon
parents the purely voluntary schools were not
at a serious disadvantage. But if free common
schools were established, then all patrons of

169

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

voluntary schools must submit to be taxed
twice for the education of their children. The
following from a Globe editorial of February
1 4th, 1852, shows that the effects of free
schools upon voluntary schools were fully
appreciated :

" The Patriot of Tuesday gives us the real
reason for his opposition to free schools. For
merly he talked of pauperizing the whole people,
of socializing them, of a number of other dire
ful evils to be dreaded as consequences of all
free schools. In his last article, however, he
admits that his main objection is, that denom
inational schools can never be supported beside
those entirely free. We commend this fact to
our friends who are sincerely opposed to sec
tarian education, and yet are not prepared to
accept the principles of entire freedom. It is
undoubtedly true what the Patriot says, denom
inational schools cannot exist beside free
schools. So long as we continue to exact pay
ment from parents, so long will efforts be made
by the sects to obtain aid from the public funds
and private support in order to weaken the
common schools, draw away scholars from
them, and destroy their efficiency. When the
schools are supported entirely by taxation, no
such attempts can be met with success. No
sectarian school only partially supported by the
State can compete with the free institution,

170

The Ryerson Bill of 1850

and no one would be foolish enough to pro
pose to endow more than one entirely free
school. The people would not stand the taxa
tion. The free principle is a deathblow to the
attempts of the priests to get the education of
the people into their own hands, to train up
the children in classes and denominations, to
shut them out from free knowledge, and to give
them just what pleases their prejudiced views.
The Patriot thinks it would be tyrannical to
prevent the establishment of sectarian schools
by means of a free system. We cannot see it
in that light. The denominational plan has
been tried in England, but it has failed. The
schools were never established in sufficient
numbers to educate the people. It is not
reasonable to expect that sects managed by
cliques of clergymen in the large towns should
be able to manage a complete system of educa
tion for the people. The very idea is absurd.
Are we then to give up our efforts for the
education of the people, because these efforts
would interfere with the small, ineffectual en
deavours these denominations might make
to secure proselytes to their churches
through secular schools ? Certainly not;
the greatest friend to sectarian education
could not admit that ; and we who oppose that
system rejoice that free schools, which are
spreading so fast, will effectually put down the
endeavours of the sects after educational influ-

171

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

ence which has produced both in Ireland and
England such a scarcity of knowledge, and
which have not been without their ill-effects in
Canada."

These quotations will for us serve two pur
poses. They give a fair picture of the free
school movement, and they sum up the argu
ments for and against State education. No
thoughtful person in this age can observe the
apathy of thousands of people in regard to
the education of their children without at times
feeling that these people would appreciate
schools much more if they had to make some
personal sacrifice to secure their advantages.
But further thought is almost certain to con
vince us that free schools are the natural sup
port of a democratic government, and that
without their socializing influence a self-gov
erning people would always be more or less at
the mercy of demagogues.

172

CHAPTER VIII.

RYERSON AND SEPARATE SCHOOLS.

THE purpose of this chapter is to set forth
as briefly as possible the origin and develop
ment of Separate Schools in Upper Canada,
showing incidentally the part taken in that
development by Doctor Ryerson.

If we seek to discover the primary cause of
our Separate School system we undoubtedly
find it in the almost unanimous desire of the
pioneer settlers to have the Common Schools
established upon a basis of Christianity, and to
secure for their children some positive instruc
tion in the Holy Scriptures. From their stand
point secular schools were of necessity godless
schools. We need also to remember that sec
tarian prejudices were more bitter seventy
years ago than they are to-day. Dogma and
religion were thought to be inseparable. To
day the various bodies of Christians through
out the world make much of what they hold
in common; seventy years ago their grand
fathers could not forget the petty differences
of doctrine that held them apart. If the schools
were to give religious instruction, and if the
adoption of some form of instruction accept-

173

Ryersou and Education in Upper Canada

able to all was impossible, then separate schools
were the logical outcome. And as separate
schools for each one of the many sects into
which the scattered population of Upper Can
ada was divided were clearly impossible it nat
urally followed that such schools were estab
lished for Roman Catholics who were compara
tively few in number, and who differed in
doctrine from Protestants more radically than
the various Protestant bodies differed amongst
themselves. No one of the Protestant bodies
could object to the reading of the Protestant
Bible in the schools, but the Roman Catholics
naturally objected to their children taking any
part in such an exercise.

As pointed out in Chapter IV., .the Common
School Act of 1841 laid the foundation of
Separate Schools. The provisions of that Act
applied to the United Canadas. In any town
ship or parish any number of dissentients might
elect a trustee board and establish a school,
receiving for its support public money in pro
portion to their numbers. It is clear that in
practice under this clause a dissentient school
could be established only where the dissentients
were sufficiently numerous to furnish at least
fifteen children of school age, and contribute
a considerable sum for school purposes. An
other clause in the Act of 1841 required the
Governor to appoint, in towns and cities, school
boards made up of an equal number of Pro-

174

Ryerson and Separate Schools.

testants and Roman Catholics, the Protestants
to manage schools attended by Protestant chil
dren and the Catholics to manage schools at
tended by Catholic children. But this clause
made no provision for Roman Catholics from
two or more city school sections combining to
form one school for their children, and as
Catholics in a single city section were seldom
if ever numerous enough to form a school the
Act was practically inoperative in securing
separate Roman Catholic schools.

The Bill of 1841, as introduced into the
Assembly, contained none of the above pro
visions for Separate Schools, and the question
naturally arises, why were they inserted? Sev
eral petitions were presented from Boards of
Education, and some from Synods of the Pres
byterian Church, praying that the Bible be
made a textbook in the schools. Bishop
Strachan and the clergy of his diocese peti
tioned " that the education of the children of
their own Church may be entrusted to their
own pastors, and that an annual grant from the
assessments may be awarded for their instruc
tion." * The Roman Catholic Bishop of
Kingston also petitioned against the Bill as
brought in, but did not expressly ask for Separ
ate Schools. It seems natural then to infer
(and the Journals of the Assembly for 1841

* See copy in D. H. E., Vol. IV., p. 20.

175

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

bear out this inference), that the amendments
granting Separate Schools were a compromise.

Another amendment authorized Christian
Brothers to teach even if they were not natural
ized British subjects. In 1843 the Act of 1841
was repealed in so far as it related to Upper
Canada. The new Act made it unlawful in any
common school to compel the child to read
from any religious book or join in any religious
exercise to which his parents or guardians
objected. It also provided that if the teacher
of a school were a Roman Catholic, then any
ten householders or freeholders might petition
for a Separate School with a Protestant teacher
or, in the same way, Roman Catholics might
form a Separate School if the teacher were a
Protestant.

The grants to these Separate Schools were
to be that proportion of the total school fund
in any Municipal District that the children in
actual attendance at the Separate School bore
to the total number of children of school age
in the district, and they were subject to the
same rules and regulations regarding courses
of study and inspection as the Common
Schools.

In 1847 an amendment to the Common
School Act was passed known as the Towns
and Cities Act. This Act gave the Trustee
Boards of towns and cities full power to
determine the number of, and regulate, denom-

176

Ryerson and Separate Schools.

inational schools. An extract from Ryerson s
Annual Report for 1847 as presented to the
Provincial Secretary will make clear the nature
of the Act and the Chief Superintendent s
views of it. Speaking of the provision for
Separate Schools in the Act of 1843 ne says:

I have never seen the necessity for such a
provision in connection with any section of the
Common School Law, which provides that no
child shall be compelled to read any religious
book or attend any religious exercise contrary
to the wishes of his parents and guardians ; and
besides the apparent inexpediency of this pro
vision of the law it has been seriously objected
to as inequitable, permitting the Roman Catho
lics to have a denominational school, but not
granting a similar right or privilege to any
one Protestant denomination . . . nor does the
Act of 1847 permit the election of any sectarian
school trustees nor the appointment of a
teacher of any religious persuasion as such
even for a denominational school. Every
teacher of such school must be approved by
the town or city school authorities. There are,
therefore, guards and restrictions connected
with the establishment of a denominational
school in cities and towns under the new Act
which did not previously exist; it, in fact,
leaves the applications or pretensions of each
religious persuasion to the judgment of those

12 177

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

who provide the greater part of the local
school fund and relieves the Government and
Legislature from the influence of any such
sectarian pressure. The effect of this Act has
already been to lessen rather than to increase
denominational schools, while it places all
religious persuasions on the same legal footing,
and leaves none of them any possible ground to
attack the school law or oppose the school
system. My Report on a system of Public
Elementary Instruction for Upper Canada, as
well as various decisions and opinions which
I have given, amply show that I am far from
advocating the establishment of denominational
schools ; but I was not prepared to condemn
what had been unanimously sanctioned by two
successive Parliaments."*

During the Legislative Session of 1850, and
while the School Bill was under discussion, a
petition was presented by prominent Roman
Catholic authorities praying for some modifica
tions of the provisions for Separate Schools in
the Bill then before the House. The result
was that the iQth clause of the Act of 1850
made it compulsory upon the Municipal
Council of any township or the School Board
of any city or town or incorporated village,
upon the written request of twelve or more
resident heads of families, to establish one or
more Separate Schools for either Protestants

* See copy in D. H. E., Vol. VII., p. 178.

178

Ryerson and Separate Schools.

or Roman Catholics. At this time only fifty-
one Separate Schools were in operation in
the whole of Upper Canada,* of which nearly
one-half were Protestant.

According to a letter written by Ryerson to
Hon. George Brownf there was a movement
among certain Anglicans to secure Separate
Schools for their children. Had Roman
Catholics and Anglicans $ both secured Separ
ate Schools, it would have wrecked the Com
mon School system, and these two denomina
tions acting in concert were strong enough to
defeat the Baldwin-Lafontaine Government.
Acting on Ryerson s suggestion, the Govern
ment conceded in the main the Roman Catholic
claim and secured their support to the Bill.
This Bill gave Separate Schools one distinct
advantage over the Act of 1843. It made their
share of the Separate School fund that part of
the total fund which the Separate School
attendance bore to the total school attendance.
But Separate School supporters were still far
from having their schools recognized as a right
and placed on an equality with Common

* See circular, issued by Ryerson, of April i2th, 1850, to
Municipal Councils on Act of 1850.

t See D. H. E., Vol. IX., p. 25.

t It is not meant to suggest that even a majority of the
Anglicans would have done anything to wreck the Common
School System. As a matter of fact, only a few of the
Anglican laity sympathized with the extreme views of
Bishop Strachan, either in Common School or University
affairs.

179

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

Schools. Separate Schools were granted as a
privilege or concession, but not as a right. Let
me quote from Ryerson s circular to town
reeves on the Act of 1850: But, notwith
standing the existence of this provision of the
law since 1843, there were last year but 51
Separate Schools in all Upper Canada, nearly
as many of them being Protestant as Roman
Catholic ; so that this provision of the law is of
little consequence for good or for evil ... It
is also to be observed that a Separate School
is entitled to no aid beyond a certain portion
of the School Fund for the salary of the
teacher. The schoolhouse must be provided,
furnished, warmed, books procured, etc., by
the persons petitioning for the Separate School.
Nor are the patrons or supporters of a Separ
ate School exempted from any of the local
assessments or rates for common school pur
poses."*

This makes it clear that Separate School
supporters were liable to be taxed by the
municipality for the support of Common
Schools; they might be called upon to pay an
assessment to build, repair or furnish a Com
mon School, or to pay a part of the teacher s
salary. On the other hand, the only aid they
received in support of their own school was a
share of the legislative and municipal grants

* See D. H. E., Vol. IX., p. 208.

1 80

Ryerson and Separate Schools.

which together made up the school fund.* It
will at once be seen that every step toward
free Common Schools placed the Separate
School supporters at an increased disadvantage
because it made them contribute more and
more toward the Common School.

The Act of 1850 caused some friction in
Toronto, where the Roman Catholics asked
for a second Separate School. The Trustee
Board refused on the ground that they were
not legally compelled to establish more than
one Separate School in the city and the Court
of Queen s Bench upheld their decision. By
the old Act, under which cities were divided
into school sections, there was no legal bar
to the establishment of a Separate School in
every city school section. Ryerson thought
the Roman Catholics had a grievance and con
sented to recommend the Bill giving a Separate
School in each city ward or a Separate School
for two or more wards united for such pur
pose. This amendment was passed in 1851 and
caused considerable discussion. A large party
in Upper Canada were opposed to Separate
Schools on principle and objected to any legis
lation that would multiply them, make them

* It was long a favourite argument of those opposed to
Separate Schools that inasmuch as the bulk of the property
was owned by Protestants, the Roman Catholics were not
entitled to a share of the school fund reckoned on the
basis of the pupils attendance.

181

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

more efficient and popular, or grant them more
favourable financial support.

The attitude of the out-and-out opponents to
Separate Schools was very well expressed by
the following Bill,* introduced in 1851 by
William Lyon Mackenzie :

" Whereas the establishment of sectarian or
Separate Schools, upheld by periodical grants
of money from a provincial treasury and
placed under the control of the Executive
Government through its Superintendents of
Education and other civil officers, is a danger
ous interference with the Common School sys
tem of Upper Canada, and if allowed to
Protestants and Roman Catholics cannot
reasonably be refused to Episcopalians, Presby
terians, Quakers, Tunkers, Baptists, Inde
pendents and other religious denominations ;
and whereas if it is just that any number of
religious sects should have Separate Public
Schools it is not less reasonable that they should
have separate Grammar Schools, Colleges and
professorships in the Universities ; and whereas
it is unjust for the State to tax Protestants in
order to provide for the instruction of children
in Roman Catholic doctrines or to tax Roman
Catholics for religious instruction of youth in
principles adverse to those of the Church of
Rome; and as the early separation of children

* See Journals of Canadian Assembly for 1851.

182

Ryerson and Separate Schools.

at school on account of the creeds of their
parents or guardians would rear nurseries of
strife and dissension and cause thousands to
grow up in comparative ignorance who might
under our Common School system obtain the
advantages of a moral, intellectual and scien
tific education, be it enacted therefore that the
nineteenth section of the Act of 1850 be
repealed."

Mackenzie s Bill was defeated by 26 to 5.
It lays down broad general principles that are
not easy to overthrow, and no doubt several
who voted against it would have been glad to
see all young Canadians educated together.
But if the right to have Separate Schools be
granted, and it had been granted by successive
School Acts for Upper Canada, then it seems
naturally to follow that the Legislature was
bound to place no obstacles in the way of their
formation and to make them efficient.

Separate Schools were at first grudgingly
granted as a privilege, but not as a right.
Naturally, every extension of the privilege was
used by the supporters of these schools as a
vantage-ground from which to secure further
privileges and gradually convert these into
rights. At first the parties seceding from the
Public Schools shared only in the school fund
made up of the legislative grant and an equal
sum levied by the district, town or city council

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

the whole being available only for the pay
ment of teachers salaries. Supporters of
Separate Schools were liable to be taxed for
the building and equipment of Public Schools
in addition to the support of their own. They
claimed a pro rata share of all moneys levied
by taxation, and in some cases the law was in
voked in an attempt to secure such share.

In 1853, a radical amendment was adopted
by which Separate School supporters received a
pro rata share of the legislative grant only, and
upon subscribing for school purposes a sum
equivalent to the grant secured were relieved
of all taxation for Common School purposes.
The Act of 1853 a l so ave the Separate School
trustees power to issue certificates to the
teachers employed by them, and the same power
of levying rates upon the supporters of their
schools as that exercised by trustees of Com
mon Schools.

While the Separate School Bill of 1853 was
before the Legislature, there was an attempt
to introduce a clause establishing a general
Board of Trustees for Separate or sectarian
Schools in towns and cities. Ryerson went to
Quebec to confer with the Attorney-General and
vigorously opposed the Bill. His correspond
ence shows that he had no wish to place Separ
ate Schools on an equality with Public Schools.
In fact he wished to do nothing that would
encourage or make easy their formation. The

184

Ryerson and Separate Schools.

law as it stood allowed Separate Schools only
when the teacher was of a different religious
faith from those wishing the Separate School.
A general Board of Separate School Trustees
for every town or city would have greatly
increased the number of Separate Schools.
Ryerson says : " This is placing Sectarian
Schools upon a totally different foundation
from that on which they have always stood;
it is the introduction of a system of sectarian
schools without restriction and almost without
conditions. ... If there are city and town
Boards of Sectarian School Trustees they will
claim the right of appointing their own local
superintendents, and thus their schools will
be shut up against all inspection except that
they themselves may please to require or per
mit . . . Thus such a Board in Toronto might
recognize and claim public aid for every child
taught in convents and by other private
teachers of the same religious persuasion. . . .
If provision be made in each city and town to
incorporate into one Board one religious
persuasion, exempting it from the payment of
school rates and authorizing it to tax and
collect from its own members to any amount
for school purposes, the application of any
other religious persuasion in any such city or
town cannot be consistently or fairly resisted.
. . . The effect of all this would be to destroy
the system of Public Schools in cities and

185

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

towns and ultimately perhaps in villages and
townships, and to leave all the poorer portion
of the population and that portion of it con
nected with minor religious persuasions with
out any adequate and certain means of educa
tion. I think the safest and most defensible
ground to take is a firm refusal to sanction any
measure to provide by law increased facilities
for the multiplication and perpetuation of
sectarian schools."*

The attitude of the extreme opponents of
Separate Schools may be made clear from the
editorials of George Brown in the Toronto
Globe. On April 2nd, 1853, he says :

But under the new Bill the taxation of the
Roman Catholic parents and the whole charge
of the Separate Schools are to devolve on the
Popish authorities. The schools are to become
henceforth distinct, not only in their mode of
tuition, but in the machinery by which they are
to be conducted. They are to retain no vestige
of connection with the general educational sys
tem, which is the pride and glory of the Cana
dian people. Any Roman Catholic has only
to declare himself a supporter of a Separate
School and straightway he is relieved from
taxation for the maintenance of the general
system. As at present constituted, there is a

* See D. H. E., Vol. X., pp. 172 and 173.

186

Ryerson and Separate Schools.

kind of guarantee that Roman Catholics are
educated, that they are not left entirely in
ignorance, but under Mr. Richards Bill there
would be none. . . . The plain and obvious in
tention of the Bill is the still further develop
ment of the sectarian element in our Common
Schools. The Roman Catholics were not satis
fied with what they had already gained. They
wished to* obtain their share of the annual
Parliamentary grant, paid out of the revenue,
which is made up almost exclusively from
Protestant money. They wished to have their
schools altogether free from the supervision of
the general trustees. Their bishops went down
to Quebec, the Mirror announcing their
departure, and hinting at the object of their
journey, and straightway we have the Bill from
Mr. W. B. Richards, granting to them all they
had demanded. If they had asked much more
it would have been granted to them by the
present Government. If this Bill passes into
law, the sectarian system will be fully and
thoroughly introduced, and must be carried out
to its utmost extent. The Roman Catholics
say that they are not satisfied to send their
children to the Common Schools, and they are
free from taxation. The Episcopalians are
ready to say the same, and we ask whether in
fairness we can refuse to one what we grant to
the other? And then the Methodists will de
mand separate schools, and the Presbyterians,

187

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

and all hopes of the education of the people
may be abandoned. Yet this Bill has been
introduced by a Government raised to power
upon the principle that our school system
should be free from clerical control. No
sectarian schools was the watchword at the
last election among Reformers, yet one of the
first measures introduced by the Reform
Government is to establish sectarian schools
more thoroughly than before. We look to
them to abolish, and behold! they ratify and
confirm the evils of their predecessors. Where
is this to stop? When is the measure of the
iniquity of this Government to be filled up?
. . . Let our school system, the source of light
and intelligence, be destroyed, and what re
mains to us of hope for the country? They, as
it were, would go gradually back to the dark
ness of ignorance and superstition. We shall
consider no institution safe from priestly en
croachments if this Bill is carried. There is
no point upon which the people of Upper
Canada can be more severely wounded than
their common schools. Every true patriot has
fondly looked to them as the safeguards against
the despotism of priestcraft, and against vio
lence of an ignorant and, therefore, vicious
populace. If they are sacrificed, if their noble
endowment is scattered among the sects,
frittered away on a dozen different school sys
tems, if the priests are to take possession of all

188

Ryerson and Separate Schools.

the avenues of knowledge, what will be the fate
of this Province? Will it rise in the scale of
nations, ever to be distinguished for the intelli
gence of its people, for its prosperity and
advancement ?" *

The following from the Toronto Examiner,
reprinted in the Globe of April 7th, 1853,
shows that the Globe was not alone in its
opinions :

We arc reluctantly forced to the conviction
that the rupture, complete and final, of the
Common School system of Canada is only a
question of time. We were among those who
looked anxiously to the Government for a
liberal and decided policy on this momentous
question. An examination of the supple
mentary School Bill which we give in other
columns will bear us out but too fully, we fear,
in pronouncing its liberality exceedingly ques
tionable. . . . How different in Canada. Re
formers have been bidding for Roman Catholic
votes until they are likely to bid away every
distinctive principle which they hold, and when
this is done will it satisfy the ends of men
whose mission is to establish in the place of
free institutions the domination of priest
craft?"

* See bound volumes of Globe in Legislative Library,
Toronto.

189

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

The following from the Roman Catholic
Mirror, quoted in the Globe, April 9th, 1853,
shows that the Roman Catholics were well
pleased with the Bill :

We freely admit that we had certain mis
givings respecting the amount of relief which
might be expected from the measure pro
posed, which from the haughty and dictatorial
tone assumed by the Chief Superintendent of
Schools for Upper Canada, in his late peram
bulations, we were prepared at least to regard
with suspicion. The terms on which justice
has been hitherto meted out in stinted and
niggard instalments, under the existing law,
and the many instances in which it has been
withheld or contemptuously refused, may have
rendered us over-sensitive; but we must ac
knowledge that when we observe Dr. Ryerson
publicly promulgate the conditions on which he
would concede to Catholics the privilege of
directing the education of their own children,
we were prepared to expect a reiterated legis
lative insult and a gross injustice, not a meas
ure restrictive, partial and oppressive. We
have been most agreeably disappointed; the
Bill of the Honourable Attorney-General
West/ with some slight modifications which
can be readily introduced in committee, will
form the basis of an educational system of

190

Ryerson and Separate Schools.

sound principle, particularly calculated to do
justice to all classes of the community."

The following resolutions of the Synod of
the United Presbyterian Church, printed in the
Globe, June 3Oth, 1853, shows the opinion of
that body on the Common School question :

" Resolved. I. That this Synod approve of a
national system of education, placing all the
members of the community upon a level, and
encouraging, as that now in force in this
Province does, the use of the Scriptures under
certain reasonable regulations, as are also
prescribed therein.

" II. Holding these views, we deeply regret
to perceive the principle of sectarian schools,
so distinctly recognized in the latest amend
ments of the Provincial School Act, and do
strongly testify against such a principle
as impolitic and mischievous, recognizing
as it does the right of the Government
to take the moneys of the public and
appropriate them for the purpose of sus
taining and extending religious distractions,
and thereby continuing to stimulate the ele
ments of discord throughout the community
and mar greatly social interests.

" III. That this Synod recommend to those
under their care the use of every proper and
constitutional means to secure the repeal of all

191

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

such statutes as recognize the principle of
sectarian schools."

The movement for extended Separate
School privileges was being championed by
Bishop de Charbonnel, of Toronto. During

1852 he had a long controversy with Ryerson
on the school question.* Ryerson s letters
during this controversy make it quite clear that
he thought Separate Schools a huge blunder,
and that while he had honestly attempted to
give Roman Catholics all the law allowed them
he hoped and expected to see their schools die
a natural death.

In his Report for 1852, the Superintendent
points with pride to the fact that Separate
Schools are not increasing. Indeed, he con
gratulates himself that the provision in the
law allowing them is really a good thing, since
it is not very effective in practice but yet acts
as a safety valve to prevent violent opposition
to the school system. He believed that the
Roman Catholics themselves would ultimately
see that a policy of isolation of their children
would have the effect of cutting them off from
many of their natural privileges as Canadian
citizens. And had the Separate School Act of

1853 remained unaltered, events would likely
have shown Ryerson to be correct in his views.

* See appendices to Journals of House of Assembly,
1852-1853.

192

Ryerson and Separate Schools.

He believed the Act of 1853 was final, and
that without any municipal machinery for
collecting their taxes Separate Schools would
never become numerous.

In this he was greatly mistaken, as events
proved. In 1854, the Roman Catholic Bishops
of Toronto, Kingston and Bytown, drew up a
Separate School Bill which they wished should
become law. This Bill would have forced all
Roman Catholics to support Catholic Separate
Schools wherever such were established. It
also had other provisions which Ryerson
thought objectionable. In 1855 a Separate
School Bill, known as the " Tache Bill," was
introduced into the Legislative Council, and
after some amendments adopted by both
branches of Parliament. This Act differed
from all previous Acts in that its provisions
were exclusively for Roman Catholic Separate
Schools. It repealed all previous legislation
for Separate Schools in so far as Roman
Catholics were concerned. It made possible
the establishment of a Roman Catholic Separ
ate School in any school section or any ward
of a town or city on petition of ten Roman
Catholic ratepayers and gave them a Separate
School Board with their own Superintendent
in towns and cities. Such Roman Catholic
ratepayers were relieved from all municipal
rates for Common School purposes, and
received for their own school a pro rata share
13 193

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

of the Legislative grant if they had an average
attendance of 15 pupils. The Act also made
possible general Boards of Separate School
Trustees in towns and cities and gave all
Separate School Boards power to license their
own teachers and levy rates for Separate
School purposes upon the supporters of those
schools. The Act was in principle a distinct
gain for the champions of Separate Schools,
but it led to no rapid increase in the number
of such schools. In 1858, only 94 Separate
Schools were in existence with an enrolment of
less than 10,000 children, as compared with an
enrolment of 284,000 in the Public Schools.
The Act of 1855 was really forced upon Upper
Canada by the votes of members from Lower
Canada, there being ,a majority of Upper
Canada members against the Bill.

It would seem that the Roman Catholics did
not gain by the Tache Bill as much as they
expected. The following letter written to Dr.
Ryerson from Quebec, on June 8th, 1855, by
John (afterwards Sir John) A. Macdonald,
Attorney-General for Upper Canada, who had
charge of the Bill in the Assembly, shows that
political exigencies played no small part in
school legislation : " Our Separate School Bill,
which, as you know, is now quite harmless,
passed with the approbation of our friend,
Bishop Charbonnel, who, before leaving here,
formally thanked the administration for doing

194

Ryerson and Separate Schools.

justice to his Church. He has got a new light
since his return to Toronto, and he now says
the Bill won t do. I need not point out to your
suggestive mind that in any article written by
you on the subject it is politic to press two
points on the public attention : ist, That the Bill
will not, as you say, injuriously affect the Com
mon School system. This for the people at
large. 2nd, That the Bill is a substantial boon to
the Roman Catholics. This to keep them in good
humour. You see that if the Bishop makes
the Roman Catholics believe that the Bill is
no use to them there will be a renewal of an
unwholesome agitation which I thought we
had allayed."*

That Sir John A Macdonald was largely in
agreement with Dr. Ryerson on the Separate
School question is the opinion of Sir Joseph,
Pope, his biographer, who says on page 138
of his Memoirs : " Mr. Macdonald said that he
was as desirous as anyone of seeing all chil
dren going together to the Common School,
and if he could have his own way there would
be no Separate School. But we should respect
the opinions of others who differed from us,
and they had a right to refuse such schools as
they could not conscientiously approve of."

From 1855 to 1863, no important changes
took place in the law governing Separate
Schools. These schools were increasing very

* See copy of letter in D. H. E., Vol. XII., p. 40.

195

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

slowly, not so fast as the natural growth of
the Roman Catholic population. In 1860,
there were only 115 Separate Schools with an
enrolment of 14,708 as compared with some
325,000 in the Public Schools. In 1860, Mr.
(afterwards Honourable) R. W. Scott intro
duced a Bill planned to give Separate Schools
additional privileges. Substantially the same
Bill was introduced annually by Mr. Scott
until 1863, when it passed with amendments,
some of which were suggested by Dr. Ryerson.
As a matter of fact, the Tache Act of 1855,
which was suggested partly by the status of
Protestant dissentient schools in Lower
Canada, had imposed some useless but vexa
tious restrictions upon Separate School sup
porters. In 1862, Ryerson proposed to satisfy
what he called the reasonable demands of
Roman Catholics by making four changes, as
follows : *

ist. To allow the formation of Separate
Schools in incorporated villages and in towns
(the Tache Act allowed a Separate School only
in the ward of a town and not a school for the
town as a whole) ; 2nd. To allow a union of
two or more Separate Schools; 3rd. To make
it unnecessary for a Separate School suppor
ter annually to declare himself such ; and 4th,
To exempt Separate School trustees from

* See D. H. E., Vol. XVII., pp. 192 and 193.

196

Ryerson and Separate Schools.

making oath as to the correctness of their
school returns.

The Scott Bill of 1863* as finally adopted
by the Legislature, embodied all these pro
visions and some others of importance. Separ
ate School teachers were to submit to the same
examinations and receive the same certificates
of qualification as Public School teachers, but
all teachers qualified by law in Lower Canada
were to be qualified teachers for Separate
Schools in Upper Canada. This provision was
to allow the teachers of religious orders f
recognized by law as qualified in Lower Canada
to teach in Separate Schools in Upper Canada.
The Act also made taxpayers who withdrew
their support from Separate Schools liable for
their share of debts incurred while Separate
School supporters in building or equipping
Separate Schools. On the whole, the Scott
Bill, while in its unamended form it aroused
great opposition in Upper Canada, as finally

* The Scott Bill, as originally introduced, made any
Roman Catholic priest an ex-officio trustee of a Separate
School in his parish ; made all the property of a Separate
School supporter exempt from taxation for Public School
purposes, even though some of the property was outside
a Separate School district ; gave Separate School trustees
unlimited power to form union sections ; created a separate
County Board of Examiners to license Separate School
teachers, and gave the Superintendent of Education little
or no power to control textbooks, holidays or inspection
of Separate Schools.

t The Report of the Chief Superintendent for 1871 shows
70 teachers in Separate Schools belonging to religious
orders out of a total of 249.

197

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

adopted, tended to bring the Separate Schools
into closer harmony with the principles govern
ing Public Schools. The feature of the Bill
that aroused most opposition was its being
forced upon Upper Canada by votes of Lower
Canadian members there being a majority*
of ten Upper Canada members against the third
reading of the Bill in the Assembly. Such
well-known men as John A. Macdonald, John
Sandfield Macdonald and Wm. Macdougall
supported the Bill, while George Brown,
Alexander Mackenzie and Oliver Mowat op
posed it.

Ryerson claimedf that he agreed to the
amended Scott Bill only on the distinct under
standing that it was to be a finality in Separate
School legislation. He also claimed that the
Roman Catholic Bishops of Quebec, Kingston
and Toronto accepted the Bill as a final settle
ment. But nothing is final in legislation, and
Dr. Ryerson ought to have known this. Legis
lation is as much the result of a process of
evolution as any other institution of human
society, and no three or four men, whether
priests or laymen, could speak authoritatively
and finally for the thousands of Roman
Catholics in Upper Canada.

Separate Schools increased slowly. In 1863
they numbered 115, with 15,000 pupils, the

* See Journals of Canadian Assembly for 1863.
t See D. H. E., Vol. XVII., p. 219.

198

Ryerson and Separate Schools.

Public Schools having during the same year
45,000 Roman Catholic pupils. In 1864,
Separate Schools had increased to 147 with
17,365 pupils. In 1871, the number was 160,
with 21,000 pupils.

Almost immediately after the Scott legisla
tion of 1863, an agitation began for further
amendments to the Separate School Act. Ryer
son made strong objections partly on the
ground of the alleged compact of 1863, and
partly on the ground that no legislation could
possibly make Separate Schools really popular
and efficient outside of large towns and cities.

In 1865, the school administration was
attacked by James O Reilly, of Kingston, and,
in a memorandum prepared as a reply to these
attacks, Ryerson goes into some detail to
justify his Separate School policy and reiter
ates his firm belief that sectarian schools must
ever be relatively inefficient. He concludes as
follows : " The fact is that the tendency of the
public mind and of the institutions of Upper
Canada is to confederation and not isolation,
to united effort and not divisions. The efforts
to establish and extend Separate Schools,
although often energetic and made at great
sacrifice, are a struggle against the instincts
of Canadian society, against the necessities of
a sparsely populated country, against the social
and political interest of the parents and youth
separated from their fellow-citizens. It is

199

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

not the Separate School law that renders such
efforts fitful, feeble and little successful ; their
paralysis is caused by a higher than human law,
the law of circumstances the law of nature,
and the law of interest.

If, therefore, the present Separate School
law is not to be maintained as a final settlement
of the question and if the Legislature finds it
necessary to legislate on the Separate School
question again, I pray that it will abolish the
Separate School law altogether; and to this
recommendation I am forced after having long
used my best efforts to maintain and give the
fullest effect and most liberal application to
successive Separate School acts and after
twenty years experience and superintendence
of our Common School system."*

When the Confederation resolutions adopted
at Quebec in 1864 were being discussed in the
Canadian Assembly in 1865, an extended
debate arose over the clause which secured for
the minorities in Upper and Lower Canada
the privilege of Separate Schools. Men like
George Brown and Alexander Mackenzie, who
had opposed the Scott Bill of 1863, defended
the minority clause on the ground that it would
place Upper Canada in no worse position than
she already was in regard to sectarian schools,
and that privileges given ought not to be with-

* See copy of Memorandum, D. H. E., Vol. XVIII., pp.
304-316.

2OO

Ryerson and Separate Schools.

drawn. The Assembly were almost unanimous
in supporting the Separate School clause which
was incorporated into the British North
America Act.

No changes in Separate School legislation
were made after Confederation until 1886, and
the only events of passing importance in
Separate School affairs were the objections
raised in Kingston in 1865 and in Toronto in
1871 to visits of inspection by the Grammar
School Inspector, who had been appointed to
make these visits by the Council of Public
Instruction. When Dr. Ryerson pointed out
that these visits were authorized by the Scott
Bill of 1863, the Bishops very gracefully
waived their objections and the principle of
Separate School inspection by Government
officers was established. In 1874, the three
High School Inspectors made a general inspec
tion of Separate Schools. In their report to
the Government they say : " The inspection of
the Separate Schools derives an additional
interest and importance from the peculiar
position they occupy in our educational sys
tem. Among them we have found both well-
equipped and ill-equipped, both well-taught and
ill-taught schools. On the whole we regret
that in the majority of cases the buildings, the
equipment, and the teaching are alike inferior.
There are but few Separate School teachers
whose school surroundings are such as to make

201

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

their positions enviable, and accordingly a large
measure of approbation is due to those who
have succeeded in doing good work. We have
pleasure in stating that in many places the
Separate School Boards are beginning to see
that they must either make the schools under
their charge more efficient or close them
altogether. There are many things connected
with the operation of the Separate School Act
which invite comment; but we think it best to
postpone the expression of our views until they
are matured by the experience of another
year."

Some years after this, in 1882, the Education
Department adopted the plan of appointing
special Roman Catholic Inspectors of Separate
Shools. No doubt regular inspection of these
schools has done much to increase their ef
ficiency, but it is to be regretted that the plan
of inspection adopted tends to widen still fur
ther the breach between them and the schools
of the mass of the people.

Four years after Ryerson s death, the Act
relating to Separate Schools was revised and
amended. No new principles were introduced,
but every amendment made tended to place
Separate School supporters on an equality with
supporters of Public Schools. The number of
schools has gradually increased owing to the
rapid increase in our urban population. In
1884 there were 207 Separate Schools, with

202

Ryerson and Separate Schools.

27,463 pupils; in 1894, 328 schools with 39,-
762 pupils; and in 1906, 443 schools with
50,000 pupils.

Perhaps the most important event connected
with the history of Separate Schools since
1886 was the decision of the Judicial Com
mittee of the Privy Council in November, 1906.
This decision made it clear that the clause
declaring persons qualified as teachers in Que
bec at the time of Confederation to be qualified
teachers of Separate Schools in Ontario ap
plied only to individuals and not to religious
corporations as such. The result will be that
the Separate Schools ought soon to have a body
of teachers with the same academic standing
and the same normal training as the Public
Schools.

203

CHAPTER IX.

RYERSON AND GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.

As already shown in the chapters on the early
history of schools in Upper Canada, Grammar
Schools were provided for before any pro
vision was made for Common Schools. In fact
the chief nominal purpose of the large grant of
public land in 1799 was to endow Grammar
Schools, and in 1807 schools were opened in
each of the eight Districts into which Upper
Canada was then divided. These schools were
supposed to be classical schools, fashioned upon
the model of the great English Public Schools.
As a matter of fact they had no uniform
standard of equipment, staff, course of study
or graduation. A few schools, such as Corn
wall, Kingston, York, and Niagara, were
famous and turned out many able men. Some
of the schools received pupils who could not
read, and were in no sense secondary schools.
As the population increased, new schools were
opened. Although originally intended to be
free schools, they all charged fees. The public
grant, which was paid direct to the principal,
was one hundred pounds for each school. As
the population increased, new schools were

204

Ryerson and Grammar Schools

opened, and by 1844, when Ryerson became
Superintendent of Education, twenty-five
Grammar Schools and Academies were in
operation.

These schools were managed by trustees ap
pointed by the Crown, but were under no
proper Government control. They were never
really inspected. Each school was a law unto
itself. All were supposed to teach Latin and
Greek, but in many of them there was not a
single pupil studying either of these languages.
They were handicapped in many ways. For
years there were no good elementary schools
from which they could draw pupils with a
foundation for a secondary education. During
the same long period there were in Upper
Canada no colleges to which graduates of
Grammar Schools might go for professional
training. This gave these schools a wide scope
and great opportunities, but few seized the
opportunities. The poverty of the people and
the natural apathy of many in regard to educa
tion also prevented the development of good
schools.

Good schools are possible only with good
teachers, and good teachers in Upper Canada
were not easily secured. The professions of
law and medicine then, as now, were much
more attractive than teaching for men of ability
and education. Mercantile life also offered
great opportunities. The result was that the

205

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

Grammar Schools were often in charge of
incompetent teachers.

Ryerson s commission gave him no control
over Grammar Schools. But his first Report in
1846 recommended a graded, unified system of
schools from the Common School to the Uni
versity. He also pointed out that these Gram
mar Schools which were intended for a special
work were teaching everything taught in a
Common School. In his Report for 1849 ne
recommended a commission of inquiry into the
state of Grammar Schools and showed that the
whole thirty or forty schools had matriculated
only eight students into the University during
that year. He suggested a fixed course of
studies, a minimum qualification for entrance,
and Government inspection. Surely," he
says, " it never could have been intended that
the Grammar Schools should occupy the same
ground as Common Schools, should compete
with them, thus lowering the character and
efficiency of both. ... I am far from intimating
an opinion that there are no efficient Grammar
Schools in the Province, even under the present
system or rather absence of all system. There
are several instances in which separate apart
ments for different classes of pupils are pro
vided and assistance employed to teach the
English branches, but such examples are rather
exceptions to the general rule than the rule
itself. The general rule is whether there be

206

Ryerson and Grammar Schools

an assistant or not to admit pupils of both
sexes and all ages and attainments for ABC
and upwards into schools which ought to
occupy a position distinct from and superior to
that of the Common Schools. Equally far be
it from me to intimate that there is any defi
ciency of qualifications on the part of masters
of Grammar Schools. But I doubt not that
they will be the first to feel how much the effi
ciency and pleasures of their duties will be
advanced by the introduction of a proper and
uniform system as they will be the first to
confess, non omnia possumus omnes.

After the Common Schools had been brought
under the rule of law it was inevitable that the
Grammar Schools should be reorganized. In
1850, Francis Hincks introduced a Grammar
School Bill prepared by Doctor Ryerson. This
Bill aimed at bringing the schools under popu
lar control and administering them on lines
similar to those governing Common Schools.
Trustees were to be appointed by County
Councils; Trustee Boards were to have power
to levy rates for buildings, equipment and ap
paratus; the Legislative grant was to be dis
tributed to the several Districts on the basis of
population, but only when local contributions
made up a sum equal to the grant exclusive of
pupils fees; the programme of studies was to

* See extract from Report of 1849, published in D.H.E.,
Vol. VIII., p. 291.

2O7

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

be broad enough to prepare for matriculation;
the Council of Public Instruction was to fix
Grammar School programmes, prescribe texts
and appoint inspectors. A meteorological
station was to be established in connection with
one Grammar School in each District. This
Bill was withdrawn, but a similar one* became
law on January ist, 1854. The new Act, as
amended in 1855, a ^ so provided for uniting
Grammar Schools with Common Schools and
provided that a Grammar School master, un
less a university graduate, must secure a certifi
cate from a Board of Examiners appointed by
the Council of Public Instruction. This Act
also authorized an annual appropriation of
1,000 to establish a Model Grammar School
in connection with the Normal School, author
ized the Council of Public Instruction to ap
point Grammar School inspectors, and made up
a liberal grant to secure libraries and apparatus.
After this legislation, the Council of Public
Instruction drew up regulations governing the
curriculum of Grammar Schools and took steps
to bring about the use of uniform texts. From
the first there were two courses of study, a
general English course and a classical course
leading to matriculation. The head master of

* This Act did not give trustees power to levy assess
ments, but they might ask municipal councils to do so. The
distribution of the Legislative grant did not, as in the Bill
of 1850, depend upon the raising of any fixed amount by
the local Board.

208

Ryerson and Grammar Schools

each Grammar School was required to conduct
an examination of candidates for admission,
the requirements being intelligible reading
from any common reading book, spelling,
writing, elementary arithmetic, and the ele
ments of English grammar, with definitions of
geography.

In the autumn of 1855, the Grammar
Schools were inspected, those in the east by
Thomas Jaffray Robertson and those in the
west by William Ormiston. Their reports
show that many of these schools were in
different and a few hopeless. Perhaps half of
them were doing fairly well. The attendance
averaged about thirty, of whom nearly one-
half were studying Latin. Half of the schools
admitted female pupils. The highest salary
paid a head master was $1,200, while the aver
age for head masters was $700. Few of the
schools had two masters. Half the total num
ber of head masters were graduates of British
or Canadian universities. In some cases the
teachers were paid a fixed salary, and in some
cases they got the Government grant and the
school fees. These fees averaged about three
dollars per quarter. In a few cases the head
master had a dwelling in connection with the
school.

The inspectors criticised the buildings, equip
ment and grounds severely, as the following
extracts will show :
14 209

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

" Of the Grammar School houses seventeen
were originally built for school purposes and
several of them, which were spacious and sub
stantial buildings, may be classed as good;
ten were somewhat inferior; and one, a very
old wooden building, could scarcely be con
sidered habitable. Nine schools were carried
on in premises rented for the purpose and were
in most instances totally unfit. In many cases
the grounds attached to the schoolhouses were
partially or entirely unfenced, and the sheds or
outhouses were in a shameful state of neglect.
Even in the neatest premises I saw no
attempt at ornament; not a tree, shrub
or flower to awaken or cultivate a taste
so simple and natural in itself and so
easily gratified as it could be in rural dis
tricts. . . . Very many of these houses are
inferior to the Common Schools. In most
cases the premises present a dull, unthrifty
and unattractive appearance, destitute alike of
ornament and convenience, without fence, shed,
well, tree, shrub or flower, while within an
entire lack of maps, charts and apparatus is
with too few exceptions the general rule."*

Two years later the same inspectors made
another general report on Grammar Schools.
They found some improvements but many
weak schools doing the most elementary Com-

* See copy of Report in D. H. E., Vol. XII., p. 81.

2IO

Ryerson and Grammar Schools

mon School work. They deprecated the prac
tice, then becoming somewhat common, of
establishing new Grammar Schools in small
villages.

It is abundantly clear from Ryerson s Re
ports, 1856-58, that he was dissatisfied with
the progress being made in Grammar Schools
and eager to attempt their improvement by
means of further legislation. The most
serious problem was that of providing an
adequate and certain financial support for these
schools. The schools were managed by trustee
boards appointed by County Councils, but were
attended largely by pupils of towns and cities.
The people using them and contributing largely
to their support were not given the power to
manage them.

Ryerson was also very doubtful about the
result of the experiment authorized in 1854, of
uniting Common and Grammar Schools. The
union gave trustee boards increased freedom
of management, but in many cases the union
school became, for all practical purposes, a
common school, having, perhaps, three or four
senior pupils studying Latin and Greek. Such
schools brought all Grammar Schools into con
tempt.

The report of the Grammar School inspector
on the schools of Eastern Ontario, for 1860,
shows that things were far from satisfactory :

211

I .

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

" With the exception of two or three really
good schools our Grammar Schools in the ex
treme East are in a very low state. Some of
them I can only designate as infant schools.
Nor do I see anything from the localities in
which they are placed or the present state of
the Grammar School law which gives me any
hope of amelioration. Advancing civilization
and the material growth of the country in time
may act upon them, but immediate remedies
and those of a stringent nature are impera
tively needed. . . . The want of a class of
specially trained Grammar School masters who
have taken this as a permanent profession for
life is a great drawback to the efficiency of our
schools. The supposed inferior social status
of the Grammar School master and the larger
rewards held out for superior mental activity
in the other professions turn aside most of
those who are most eminently qualified for the
scholastic office. Of the twenty-two schools
mentioned in my report six were in the hands
of persons who avowedly were making teach
ing the stepping-stone to the attainment of
other professions, as law, medicine, or the
church. Several were evidently conducted by
persons who had taken to teaching after hav
ing failed in other walks of life. Compara
tively few were held by those who were fitted
for their office by previous training, or were

212

Ryerson and Grammar Schools

devoting themselves entirely to their work as
the main business of their lives."*

There seems also to have been a disposition
to unduly multiply Grammar Schools because
they were supported so largely by the Legisla
tive grant. The Rev. Dr. Paxton Young, In
spector of Grammar Schools, in his report for
1864, says: The too free and inconsiderate
exercise by County Councils of the large power
thus entrusted to them has led to a heedless
and most unfortunate multiplication of the
Grammar Schools, and the evil instead of
showing any symptoms of abatement appears
to be growing worse from year to year. In
1858 the number of the schools was seventy-
five ; in 1860 it was eighty-eight ; in 1863 it had
risen to ninety-five; and the number of recog
nized schools is now as high as one hundred
and eight. Not a few of the schools thus
hastily established are Grammar Schools in
name rather than in reality, the work done in
them being almost altogether Common School
work, which, as a rule, would be much better
performed in a well-appointed Common School.
I believe that County Councils are often led
to establish Grammar Schools in localities
where they are not needed under the idea that
if the schools should be productive of no good
at any rate they can do no harm. There could
not be a greater mistake. Men ought to be

*See D. H. E., Vol. XVI., pp. 148, 149-

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Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

wise enough by this time to understand that
all public institutions, especially if forming
parts of a great plan, must, where unnecessary,
be positively bad. Needless and contemptible
Grammar Schools are a blot upon the whole
school system, the sight of which is fitted to
shake the confidence of the country in the
administrative wisdom or firmness of those to
whom the direction of educational matters is
committed. When it is considered that the
apportionment from the Grammar School fund
to a particular county is divided according to
certain fixed principles between the different
schools in that county, it will be seen that the
disposition manifested by some councils to
secure the largest number of schools for their
county, is practically a disposition to secure
quantity for quality, for as the number of
schools is augmented the salaries of the masters
are diminished, the tendency of which is, of
course, to throw the schools into the hands of

a lower grade of teachers About

three out of every five Grammar Schools in
Upper Canada have Common Schools united
with them, and, in not a few instances, where
unions have not yet been formed, I found a
strong disposition existing to enter into such
an arrangement. I made it my business to
inquire particularly into the benefits supposed
to result from the union of the Common with
the Grammar Schools. The chief advantage

214

Ryerson and Grammar Schools

was in almost every case admitted to be a
pecuniary one. By the existing law Grammar
School trustees have of themselves no power
to raise money for Grammar School purposes,
but in case of the Common and Grammar
Schools becoming united the joint boards may
levy money for the support of the united
schools. This being so, it is easy to comprehend
how strongly the trustees of a Grammar School
who feel their hands tied up from doing any
thing to put the school in an efficient state may
be tempted to make with the Common School
Board a league which will give them a voice in
the important matter of taxation. . . But
of nothing am I more convinced than that as
a rule such a union is undesirable. In a large
number of instances it throws upon the Gram
mar School master the necessity of receiving
into his room, and personally instructing, Com
mon School pupils, as well as those whom it is
his more particular duty to attend to. A con
sequence of this is that he cannot afford the
Grammar School pupils the time that is neces
sary for drilling them in the subjects that they
are studying."*

But Doctor Young saw much promise in the
schools, as the following from the same Report
will show : Leaving out of view schools of
this sort, I do not hesitate to say that the Gram-

* See copy of Report in D. H. E., Vol. XVIII., pp. 199-
205.

215

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

mar Schools of Upper Canada are, as a class,
not only in the promise of what they may be
come, but in what they actually are at the
present moment, an honour to the country. We
must not look for too much. It would be pre
posterous to expect at this early period in the
history of our Province, that its Grammar
Schools generally should be able to bear com
parison with the better classical and mathe
matical schools of Great Britain and Ireland.
To this Canada does not pretend, but she has
begun well, and appears to be steadily, if not
rapidly, progressing."

In June, 1865, Ryerson went to Quebec to
press upon the Government the necessity of a
new Grammar School bill. As the Confedera
tion scheme was approaching maturity he
found the Government unwilling to embark
upon any legislation that might prevent an
early prorogation. Mr. John A. Macdonald
suggested that the difficulty might be met by a
regulation issued under the authority of the
Council of Public Instruction. This was ac
cordingly done, and the Council immediately
framed regulations as follows : First, the Legis
lative grant was to be apportioned on the
basis of the attendance of those learning Greek
and Latin, as certified by the Grammar School
Inspector. Second, no school was to receive
any portion of the Legislative grant unless
suitable accommodations were provided, and

216

Ryerson and Grammar Schools

unless there were an average of at least ten
pupils learning Latin and Greek, nor were any
pupils to be admitted or continued in a Gram
mar School unless they were learning Latin
and Greek.

This absurd regulation never went into
effect, as the Legislature passed a Grammar
School Bill in the latter part of 1865. The
new Bill made each city a county for Grammar
School purposes ; it allowed County Councils
to appoint half the Grammar School trustees,
the other half being appointed by the village or
town council where the school was situated.
This latter provision was planned to give
increased local control and thus create a
stronger interest in the management of the
schools. The distinction which had so long ex
isted between senior and junior county Gram
mar Schools* was abolished and the Legis
lative grant was apportioned solely on the basis
of attendance, but no school was to share the
grant unless there was raised from local
sources, exclusive of pupils fees, a sum equal
to half the grant. It was made more difficult
to establish new schools. Only graduates of
universities in British dominions were to be
eligible for head masters positions. On the
suggestion of the Hon. William Macdougall,

* This senior Grammar School, being the one first estab
lished in each county, had drawn a larger Legislative grant
than the others.

217

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

a clause was inserted providing for a grant of
fifty dollars a year to those Grammar Schools
giving a course of elementary military instruc
tion.

The Report of Rev. Geo. Paxton Young on
the Grammar Schools in 1865 is of great
interest, read in the light of nearly half a
century s progress in the higher education of
women. I shall quote his exact words :

" I have frequently been asked whether I
considered it desirable that girls should study
Latin in the Grammar Schools. It is, in my
opinion, most undesirable; and I am at a loss
to comprehend how any intelligent person
acquainted with the state of things in our
Grammar Schools can come to a different con
clusion. . . . Since I became Inspector, I have
not met with half a dozen girls in the Grammar
Schools of Canada by whom the study of Latin
has been pursued far enough for the taste to be
in the least degree influenced by what has been
read. Aesthetically, the benefits of Grammar
Schools to girls are nil. ... It may perhaps be
said that although they have for the most part
made but little progress in Latin up to the
present time, a fair proportion of them may be
expected to pursue the study to a point where
its advantages can be reaped. I do not believe
that three out of a hundred will. As a class,
they have dipped the soles of their feet in the

218

Ryerson and Grammar Schools

water, with no intention or likelihood of wading
deeper into it. They are not studying Latin
with any definite object. They have taken it
up under pressure at the solicitation of the
teachers or trustees to enable the schools to
maintain the requisite average attendance of
ten classical pupils or to increase that part of
the income of the schools which is derived from
public sources. In a short time they will leave
school to enter on the practical work of life
without having either desired or obtained more
than the merest smattering of Latin, and their
places will be taken by another band of girls
who will go through the same routine. It may
perhaps be urged that these remarks are as
applicable to as large a number of the Grammar
School boys as they are to the girls. I admit
that they are; and I draw the conclusion that
such boys, equally with the girls in the Gram
mar Schools, are wasting their time in keeping
up the appearance of learning Latin. It would
be unspeakably better to commit them to first-
class Common School teachers, under whose
guidance they might have their reflective and
aesthetic faculties cultivated through the study
of English and of those branches which are
associated with English in good Common
Schools. This would, of course, diminish the
number of the Grammar Schools in the Pro
vince; but it might not be a very grievous
calamity, especially if it led to the establishment

219

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

of first-class Common Schools in localities
where inferior teachers are now employed."*

It was a part of a Grammar School inspec
tor s duty to examine the pupils who had been
admitted by the Grammar School masters and
reject any who were too immature or were
insufficiently prepared. Dr. Young complains
strongly in his Report of 1865 of the poor
teaching of English grammar. In some cases
he had to reject more than half those admitted.
He found pupils wholly unable to parse such
easy sentences as : The mother loved her
daughter dearly/ John ran to school very
quickly," She knew her lesson remarkably
well."

It is doubtful whether the Grammar School
Bill of 1865 made any real improvement in the
schools. Without denying that some of them
were doing a good work, and that as a force
in the national life they were fostering some
love for higher education, it is safe to assert
that they were not very closely related to the
real needs of the people. Their aim was
narrow. Their very name shows this. There
was a crying need in the country for schools
that would give an advanced English and
scientific education with classic and modern
languages to those who wished to pursue
university studies. But the most of the Gram-

* See copy of Report in D. H. E. ( Vol. XIX., pp. 96, 97.

22O

Ryerson and Grammar Schools

mar Schools aimed only at a study of Latin
and Greek, and indeed the Grammar School
legislation and the regulations of the Council
of Public Instruction had made a certain
number of Latin pupils one of the conditions
upon which a Grammar School might receive
a public grant.

The Act of 1865 soon showed some disas
trous tendencies. It did not check the desire
to form unions between Grammar Schools and
Common Schools, as such unions made it easier
to levy a rate in support of the union schools,
and thus comply with the conditions upon
which Grammar Schools received grants. The
clause in the new Act making average attend
ance the basis of attendance, together with a
regulation of the Council of Public Instruction
which counted only Latin pupils in making the
grant, led the head masters of union schools to
draft every available pupil into the Grammar
School departments* and put them all, boys and
girls, into Latin. Often they were not pre
pared for such work and got no real benefit
from it. They wasted their time and lost the
benefits of a sound English education which a
good Common School would have given them.

* It should be remembered that while a Public School
pupil drew less than one dollar per year Legislative grant,
the moment this pupil was enrolled in a Grammar School
he drew from $20 to $35 yearly. In 1872, the average
Legislative grant to a Public School pupil was 40 cents, and
to a Grammar School pupil $20. See D. H. E., Vol. XXIV.,
p. 302.

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Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

Hundreds of boys and girls who had no founda
tion for a classical education, and who had no
prospect of ever advancing far enough to
receive any solid knowledge of Latin, were
making a pretence of studying it in order that
the school might draw a Government grant.
Ignorant parents raised no objections, think
ing perhaps that Latin possessed some charm
which would be an " open sesame for the
future advancement of the boys and girls.

Dr. Ryerson was not the man to diagnose
the case. But the hour brought forth the man,
and that man was George Paxton Young, one
of the Inspectors of Grammar Schools. In
two very able Reports* presented in 1867 and
1868, he sets forth clearly and convincingly
the defects of the system then in operation
and suggests the direction that reforms should
take to make the Grammar Schools serve a
useful purpose. He wished to see their char
acter wholly changed. He did not under
value classics, but he believed that a smatter
ing of classics was of no benefit, and that it
caused a waste of time that might be given to
subjects of real value. He wished to see High
Schools that would give an advanced English
training, together with natural science, mathe
matics, and history. He did not believe in
forcing all to study Latin, nor did he believe in
apportioning grants to High Schools on the

* See copy of Report in D. H. E., Vol. XX., pp. 98-128.

222

Ryerson and Grammar Schools

basis of the number of pupils studying Latin.
He wished to see better Common Schools and
objected to the plan of union which robbed
the Common School of its older pupils and
degraded its function. Speaking of this, he
says : The number of union schools is increas
ing and is likely to increase. In many of the
schools of this class all the Common School
pupils, boys and girls alike, who have obtained
a smattering of English grammar are system
atically drafted into the Grammar School.
The consequence is that in localities where
such a system is followed there is no mere
Common School education (observe I say mere
Common School education) given to any
pupils, boys or girls, which is not of the most
elementary description ; and not only have the
Grammar Schools thus become to a great
extent girls schools as well as boys schools,
but what is especially noteworthy the girls
admitted to these schools are in a majority of
instances put into Latin as a matter of course ;
in other words, the study of Latin is made
practically a condition of their admission into
the Grammar School. Will any man say that
this state of things is satisfactory, a state of
things in which the Common Schools are
degraded by being suspended from the exer
cise of all their higher functions? Unless I
misunderstand the object of the Common
School law, the Common Schools are designed

223

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

to furnish a good English and general educa
tion to those desiring it. But how can this
end be accomplished where the Common
Schools are subject to arrangements under
which the highest stage of advancement ever
reached by the pupils is to be able to parse an
easy English sentence? . . . Children under
thirteen years of age who do not mean to take
a classical course of study have no educational
wants which the Common Schools, properly
conducted, are not fitted to supply. For children
of thirteen and upwards who have already
obtained such an education as may be got in
good Common Schools, it would, I think, be
well to establish English High Schools a
designation which I borrow from the United
States although, unfortunately, I have only a
very vague idea of what the High Schools in
the United States are."

Dr. Young strongly urged a more rigid
inspection of Grammar Schools and the appor
tioning of the Legislative grant upon the basis
of Inspectors reports. As so many girls had
been drafted into Grammar Schools and put
in grammar classes apparently to increase the
school grant, it was proposed during 1868 to
allow only fifty per cent, of girls attendance
to count in apportioning the grant and even to
make no allowance whatever for attendance of
female pupils in future years. This opened
up the whole question of co-education of the

224

Ryerson and Grammar Schools

sexes in Grammar Schools and caused lively
debates in the Legislature and in Teachers
Institutes. The general opinion seemed to pre
vail that girls should have equal rights with
boys but that the law should be so amended
as to remove all pressure upon girls to study
Latin.

After one or two abortive attempts, a Bill
reorganizing Grammar Schools was passed in
1871. This Bill abolished the term " Grammar
School," and substituted that of " High
School." Adequate provision was to be made
in each High School for an advanced English
education, including natural sciences and com
mercial subjects. The study of Latin, Greek
and modern languages was to be at the option
of the pupils parents or guardians. Provision
was made for a superior class of High School,
to be known as Collegiate Institutes. These
schools were required to have at least four
masters and an average of not less than sixty
boys studying Latin or Greek, and were to
receive a special grant of $750 a year. County
Councils were empowered to form High
School districts and provision was made by
which the High School Board could levy an
assessment upon the district. High School
vacations were extended from July ist to
August 1 5th. A very important feature of the
new Bill was the provision for the admission of
pupils. The county, city or town Inspector
15 225

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

of Schools, the Chairman of the High School
Board and the head master of the High School
were constituted a Board with power to con
duct a written examination and admit pupils
according to regulations prescribed by the
Council of Public Instruction.

At first the local examining Board set the
entrance papers, but this plan was soon super
seded by one requiring uniform papers set by
the High School Inspectors. This aroused a
storm of opposition, and the resolution of the
Council of Public Instruction requiring uni
form papers was set aside by an Order-in-
Council. But the plan of uniform papers was
so sensible, and so much chaos resulted from
the other plan, that by 1874 the Government
authorized a uniform entrance examination
which shut out immature pupils and those
insufficiently prepared. It raised the status of
High Schools, enabling them to begin advanced
work, and indirectly increased the efficiency of
the Public Schools by fixing a standard of
attainment. The Legislature also made further
provision for High Schools by appropriating
an additional $20,000 a year, exclusive of the
grants to be given to Collegiate Institutes.

The Act of 1871 provided for a minimum
Legislative grant* for each High School, and

* The minimum grant per school was $400. The High
Schools of the Province had, in 1872, from Legislative
grant and County Councils, $105,000. This was more than
$1,000 per school and about $30 per pupil. Many of the
High Schools charged no fees.

226

Ryerson and Grammar Schools

made the maximum grant depend upon average
attendance. The Rev. George Paxton Young
had, in his last Report as Grammar School
Inspector, strongly recommended the adoption
in a modified form of the English system of
payment by results. He wished to see the High
Schools graded by the Inspectors according to
their general efficiency and the grant based
upon this grading. In 1872 the High School
Inspectors, Messrs. McKenzie and McLellan,
urged the adoption of a similar plan and
showed how it would serve as a stimulus to
better work in all the schools. They also
pointed out how such a plan would encourage
Boards to employ good teachers, since they
would have a pecuniary interest in keeping up
a good school.

The Act of 1871 gave the Council of Public
Instruction a large measure of control over
textbooks to be used in High Schools. The
Council issued lists of those authorized, and
this did much to bring about uniformity in
courses of study. Previous to 1871, many
High Schools had only one teacher, but the
new legislation required at least two for High
Schools and four for Collegiate Institutes.
To secure this required much firmness on the
part of Dr. Ryerson. Even two teachers were
wholly unable to do efficient work in large
High Schools, and there was no easy way to
force School Boards to employ more. The

227

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

Superintendent had steadily to oppose a tend
ency to form weak High Schools, and in some
cases Grammar Schools which had been able
to exist in a sickly state under the old law
were wholly unable to meet the requirements
of the Act of 1871, which threw some of the
burden of support upon the local municipality.
The Inspectors Reports for 1874 emphasize
the need of additional teachers, the poor quality
of work done in English literature, and the
necessity of increased provision for natural
science. Referring to the latter, the Inspectors
joint Report speaks as follows : " In regard to
the direct utility of the knowledge imparted,
the physical sciences are equalled by few sub
jects of study. We regret to report that the
teaching of science is not making progress in
the schools. For this there are many reasons,
of which perhaps the most important are the
lack of apparatus and the impracticable char
acter of the prescribed programme of studies.
All places might advantageously follow the
example of Whitby and fit up a science room,
that is, a room to be devoted to the teaching of
science and furnished with the necessary appli
ances and apparatus. It cannot too often be
inculcated that there can be no effective teach
ing of chemistry without experiments. Effec
tive teaching implies first of all a qualified
teacher, and few of our masters consider them
selves well qualified to teach any of the physical

228

Ryerson and Grammar Schools

sciences. Yet the number of masters qualified
to teach in this Department is increasing every
year and it is much to be regretted that where
the master is qualified he is often compelled,
if he wishes to teach chemistry, to provide the
apparatus at his own expense. The public in
difference to the claims of physical science is
greater than the indifference of the masters.
Besides, three-fourths of High School Boards
either are so poor, or believe themselves to be
so poor, that they will grumble if asked to
spend $10.00 annually for chemical purposes."*
Progress on the whole was rapid. Several
weak schools were closed, f but they were
schools which should never have been opened.
Fees were either abolished or lowered.! The
standard for pupils admission was gradually
raised and the old " Grammar Schools " were
truly doing the work for which they were
established in 1807.

Much was yet to be desired in the qualifica
tions of High School masters. In 1874, one
hundred out of one hundred and six head
masters were university graduates, but forty-
five assistants held only Second Class Normal
School Certificates, or County Certificates, and

* See copy of Report in D. H. E., Vol. XXV., pp. 244-
245-

t About fifteen in all.

$ Out of 106 schools in operation in 1875, no less than
8 1 were absolutely free. Fees in the others varied from
75 cents to $6.00 per quarter, the average being $2.70.

229

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

twenty-three schools had to employ teachers
for a whole or a part of the year without any
legal qualifications. The average salary of
head masters was $930.00, of male assistants
$664.00, and of female assistants $416.00.
The following extract from the Inspector s
Report is interesting in the light of what has
since been accomplished : " In the absence of
any special training college or chair of peda
gogy in the University, we would suggest that
as so many men are pursuing a collegiate
course, with a view to becoming High School
masters, it would be well for the Government
to establish a lectureship in Education. It
would not, we think, be difficult if proper en
couragement were given to secure the services
of several experienced and skilled education
ists, one of whom might deliver a short course
of lectures on the above subjects during each
college session."

Perhaps no part of our school system has
developed more since Ryerson retired in 1876
than our High Schools. But this development
has been almost wholly a natural growth.
True, there has been much legislation and many
changes in departmental regulations, but
nothing of a revolutionary character. The
opening of the doors of the universities to
women and their increased employment as
teachers has led to their being placed on an
absolute equality with men in the High Schools

230

Ryerson and Grammar Schools

and in all graduating examinations. The
number of schools has almost doubled and the
teaching of every department has been im
proved ; incompetent teachers have given place
to those having high academic and professional
training; natural science has been greatly
strengthened and the teaching of languages
much improved; good laboratories have been
built ; spacious buildings with fine grounds
have become the rule; the number of students
preparing for university matriculation has
multiplied many times ; the average salaries of
teachers have more than doubled, and finally
the High Schools are so adapting themselves
to the social needs of the people that they are
becoming as much the schools of the people
as are the Public Schools.

231

CHAPTER X.

RYERSON AND THE TRAINING OF
TEACHERS.

NORMAL SCHOOLS were mooted in Upper
Canada before Ryerson became Superin
tendent. As early as 1843, Sir Francis Hincks
said that the school system would never be
complete without them.* In his Report on a
System of Education made in 1846, Ryerson
made it clear that any system of education must
have as its basis trained teachers, and to secure
trained teachers was almost impossible without
Normal Schools. His report gives details of
the Normal School systems of Great Britain
and Ireland, France, Holland, Germany, and
the United States. One or two schools had
just been established in Massachusetts and one
in Albany. Ryerson visited these, but was
most favourably impressed with the Dublin
Normal and Model Schools, as managed by
the Commissioners of the Irish National Board
of Education, and our first Normal School was
modelled largely after the Dublin type.

The legislation of 1846 appropriated 1,500
for fitting up a Normal School building and

* See extract from his speech, Chap. IV., pp. 101, 102.

232

Ryerson and the Training of Teachers

made an additional appropriation of 1,500 per
annum for maintenance. The School Bill of
1846 created a Council of Public Instruction
to work with the Chief Superintendent, and
placed the proposed Normal School under its
management. The Council of Public Instruc
tion lost no time in beginning work. As early
as May, 1846, they were planning an early
opening of the Normal School, and were in
communication with John Rintoul, of the
Dublin Normal School, about accepting the
head mastership of the proposed Normal School
at Toronto. It was proposed to give Mr. Rin
toul 350, Halifax currency, and 100 for
moving expenses. Mr. Rintoul accepted the
appointment, resigned his position in Dublin,
and was about to leave for Canada when,
owing to some domestic affliction, he had to
abandon his plans. The Commissioners of the
Irish National Board then selected Thomas
Jaffray Robertson to take Rintoul s place and
the Council of Public Instruction chose as his
assistant Mr. Henry Hind, of Thorne Hill.
Robertson sailed from Ireland in July, 1847,
and in November of the same year the Normal
School was opened.

It was a part of Ryerson s plan that the
several District Councils of Upper Canada
should choose two or three promising young
men and send them to the Normal School,
paying at least part of their expenses. The

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Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

following extract from the Regulations issued
by the Council of Public Instruction in 1847
will illustrate the requirements for admission
to the first Normal School in Upper Canada:
" i st. That the Provincial Normal School shall
be open about the 1st of July next, and the
first session shall continue until the middle of
October, 1847. 2n d- That every candidate
for admission into the Normal School, in order
to his being received, must comply with the
following conditions : He must be at least six
teen years of age ; produce a certificate of good
moral character signed by a clergyman ; be
able to read and write intelligibly and be
acquainted with the simple rules of arithmetic;
must declare in writing that he intends to
devote himself to teaching (other students not
candidates for school teaching to be admitted
only on paying fees and dues to be prescribed).
3rd. Upon the foregoing conditions candidates
for school teaching shall be admitted to all the
advantages of the Normal School without any
charge either for tuition or for books. 4th.
Candidates shall lodge and board in the city
under such regulations as shall from time to
time be approved by this Board."*

The school was formally opened by Dr.
Ryerson, November ist, in the presence of a
distinguished company. The Model School
was opened the following February.

* See Report of Superintendent of Education for 1848.

234

Ryerson and the Training of Teachers

The Normal School pupils were, many of
them, poorly equipped for a course of training.
They had received no adequate secondary edu
cation. In fact, many of them were direct
from the Common Schools. A few were
mature men who had a considerable teaching
experience.*

It was necessary to give a broad academic
course and judiciously interweave some pro
fessional training. Grammar and mathematics
received much greater attention than their im
portance merited. Physical science and natural
philosophy, together with some agricultural
chemistry, received a prominent place on the
programme. Geography was also made much
of, but it was largely mathematical and poli
tical and elaborately illustrated with globes
and maps. Literature and history were taught,
but not in a way to arouse much enthusiasm.
Pupils were supposed not to learn by heart
what they did not understand, but there was in
practice much memory work and repetition of
rules.

On the whole, the Normal School was ap
proved by all classes of people, and the teachers
trained there were in great demand. But there
was some criticism, especially of the provision
by which four shillings a week was granted
to students to aid them in paying their board.

* Women were not admitted until the opening of the
second term in 1848.

235

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

Inasmuch as this money was deducted from the
school grant, it was argued that the teachers
in service were actually educating in the
Normal School others who would displace them.
Exception was also taken to granting aid to
students who had no intention of making
teaching their life work. To meet this diffi
culty, students accepting public money towards
their expenses were required to give assurance
that they would teach a stated time, and others,
called private pupils, were charged fees for
tuition.

In 1849 the experiment was made of a nine
months session, but the country was not yet
ready for this step and the attendance was so
reduced that the plan was abandoned.

In 1850, the Council of Public Instruction
attempted to widen the influence of the Normal
School by sending the Normal School masters
to attend Teachers Institutes throughout the
Province. In this way many earnest teachers
who had received no training were given sug
gestions that bore much fruit.

When the Normal School was established,
it was held in the old Legislative Buildings of
Upper Canada. After the riots in Montreal,
in 1849, Toronto again became the seat of
Government and the Normal School had to
move. Temporary quarters were obtained
while the Council of Public Instruction took
steps to secure a permanent home, not only

236

Ryerson and the Training of Teachers

for the Normal School, but for the Education
Department. The present site was secured and
Parliament made an appropriation of 15,000
to provide for it and for a building. In July,
1851, Lord Elgin laid the corner-stone.*

The address of Dr. Ryerson, in introducing
the Governor, shows that he had no thought of
divorcing the Common Schools from agricul
ture, the backbone industry of the people. He
says : " The land on which these buildings are
in course of erection is an entire square, con
sisting of nearly eight acres, two of which are
to be devoted to a botanical garden, three to
agricultural experiments, and the remainder to
the buildings of the institution. It is thus
intended that the valuable course of lectures
given in the Normal School in vegetable physi
ology and agricultural chemistry shall be prac
tically illustrated on the adjoining grounds, in
the culture of which the students will take part
during a portion of their hours of recreation.
. . . There are four circumstances which en
courage the most sanguine anticipations in
every patriotic heart in regard to our educa
tional future. The first is the avowed and
entire absence of all party spirit in the school
affairs of our country from the Provincial
Legislature down to the smallest municipality.
The second is the precedence which our Legis
lature has taken of all others on the western

* See D. H. E., Vol. X., pp. 5-14-

237

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

side of the Atlantic in providing for Normal
School instruction, in aiding teachers to avail
themselves of its advantages. The third is
that the people of Upper Canada have during
the last year voluntarily taxed themselves for
the salaries of teachers in a larger sum in pro
portion to their numbers and have kept open
their schools on an average more months than
the neighbouring citizens of the old and great
State of New York. The fourth is that the
essential requisite of a series of suitable and
excellent textbooks has been introduced into
our schools and adopted almost by general
acclamation, and that the facilities of furnish
ing all our schools with the necessary books,
maps, and apparatus will soon be in advance of
those of any other country."* In November,
1852, when the buildingsf were formally
opened, the Honourable John Beverley Robin
son, Chief Justice of Upper Canada, said:
Without such a general preparatory system
as we see here in operation, the instruction of
the great mass of our population would be left
in a measure to chance. The teachers might
be, many of them, ignorant pretenders without
experience, without method, and in some

* See D. H. E., Vol. X., p. 6.

t These included what is now the main Departmental
building and the Model School to the north. The present
Normal School building was erected later.

2 3 8

Ryerson and the Training of Teachers

respects very improper persons to be entrusted
with the education of youth. There could be
little or no security for what they might teach,
or what they might attempt to teach, nor any
certainty that the good which might be
acquired from their precepts would not be
more than counterbalanced by the ill effects of
their example. Indeed the footing which our
Common School teachers were formerly upon
in regard to income gave no adequate
remuneration to intelligent and industrious
men to devote their time to the service. But
this disadvantage is largely removed, as well as
other obstacles which were inseparable from
the conditions of a thinly-peopled and un
cleared country traversed only by miserable
roads, and henceforth, as soon at least as the
benefits of this institution can be fully felt,
the Common Schools will be dispensing
throughout the whole of Upper Canada, by
means of properly-trained teachers and under
vigilant superintendents, a system of education
which has been carefully considered and ar
ranged, and which has been for some time prac
tically exemplified. An observation of some
years has enabled most of us to form an opin
ion of its sufficiency. Speaking only for my
self, I have much pleasure in saying that the
degree of proficiency which has been actually
attained goes far, very far, beyond what I had

239

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

imagined it would have been attempted to
aim at."*

The following from Honourable Francis
Hincks leaves us in no doubt as to Ryerson s
part in securing the building. He says : " With
regard to this institution, so far it has been
most successfully conducted, and I feel bound
to say that we must attribute all the merit of
that success to the reverend gentleman who has
been at the head of our Common School sys
tem. It is only due to him that I should take
this public opportunity of saying that since I
have been a member of the Government I have
never met an individual who has displayed
more zeal or more devotion to the duties he
has been called upon to discharge than Dr.
Ryerson. A great deal of opposition has been
manifested both in and out of Parliament to
this institution, and a good deal of jealousy
exists with regard to its having been established
in the city of Toronto. I can speak from my
own experience as to the difficulties experi
enced in obtaining the co-operation of Parlia
ment to have the necessary funds provided for
the purpose of erecting this building. I will
say, however, that there never was an insti
tution in which the people have more confidence
that the funds were well applied than in this
institution. There is but one feeling that per
vades the minds of all those who have seen the

* See D. H. E., Vol. X., pp. 278-283.

240

Ryerson and the Training of Teachers

manner in which this scheme has been worked
out. In regard to the Normal School itself,
the site has been well chosen, the buildings
have been erected in a most permanent manner,
and without anything like extravagance, and I
have no doubt there will be no difficulty in
obtaining additional Parliamentary aid to
finish them."*

In his report for 1853, Ryerson suggests
Normal training for Grammar School teachers.
I shall give his own words : The Provincial
Normal and Model Schools have contributed,
and are contributing, much to the improvement
of our Common Schools by furnishing a proper
standard of judgment and comparison as to
what such schools ought to be and how
they should be taught and governed, and by
furnishing teachers duly qualified for that im
portant task. There is equal need of a Pro
vincial Model Grammar School, in which the
best modes of teaching the elements of Greek
and Latin, French and German, the elementary
mathematics and the elements of natural
science, may be exemplified, and where teachers
and candidates for masterships of Grammar
Schools may have an opportunity for practical
observation and training during a shorter or
longer period. Such a school would complete
the educational establishments of our school
system and contribute powerfully to advance

* See D. H. E., Vol. X., pp. 282-284.
16 241

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

Upper Canada to the proud position which she
is approaching in regard to institutions and
agencies for the mental culture of her youth
ful population."*

The Legislature voted 1,000 for a Model
Grammar School, and in 1855 plans for a
building were prepared under direction of the
Council of Public Instruction. The estimate
exceeded the means at the disposal of the
Council and nothing was done until 1856, when
Ryerson wrote the Executive Council as fol
lows : There is no branch of our system of
Public Instruction so defective as our Gram
mar Schools, and the Model for them as to
both structure and furniture, discipline, modes
of classification and teaching is of the utmost
importance. ... I am persuaded that a saving
of one-half of the time and expense usually
incurred in the Grammar School education of
youth may be saved by improved methods in
teaching and directing their studies, a result
which will greatly increase the number of those
who will aspire to a higher literary education
apart from other advantages and intellectual
habits and discipline. It is proposed to erect
the Model Grammar School in the rear of the
present Model School. . . . The proposed mode
of admitting pupils will prevent the Model
Grammar School from interfering with or
being the rival of any other Grammar School.

* See Superintendent s Report for 1853.

242

Ryerson and the Training of Teachers

It is also intended to afford every possible
facility and assistance to masters and teachers
of Grammar Schools throughout the Province
to come and spend some weeks in the Model
Grammar School."*

The Government now authorized the Council
of Public Instruction to proceed with the
erection of a building to accommodate one
hundred Grammar School pupils. The school
was opened in 1858. It was the intention to
give a preference to the two or three pupils
from each county and city in Upper Canada
who were recommended by the respective
Municipal Councils. Ryerson s circular to
these Councils will throw some light on the
subject: "The object of the Model Grammar
School is to exemplify the best methods of
teaching the branches required by law to be
taught in the Grammar Schools, especially the
elementary classics and mathematics, as a
model for the Grammar Schools of the coun
try. It is also intended that the Model Gram
mar School shall, as far as possible, secure the
advantages of a Normal Classical School to
candidates for masterships in the Grammar
School ; but effect cannot be given to this object
of the Model Grammar School during the first
few months of its operation."! In 1859, in a
report to the Government, Ryerson speaks

* See copy of letter in D. H. E., Vol. XII., p. 321.
t See copy of Circular in D. H. E., Vol. XIV., p. 65.

243

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

further and says : " In regard to the Model
Grammar Schools the buildings are completed
and the school has been in operation several
months and with the most gratifying success.
Upwards of thirty masters of Grammar
Schools have in the course of a few weeks
visited and spent a longer or shorter time in
the Model Grammar School with a view to im
proving their own methods of school organiza
tion, discipline, and teaching; and I have
reason to believe that it has already exerted a
salutary influence in improving the several
Grammar Schools an influence that will be
greatly increased when we are enabled to form
a special class consisting of candidates for
Grammar School masterships."*

In 1861, Mr. G. R. Cockburn, Rector of the
Model Grammar School, resigned to become
principal of Upper Canada College. Ryerson
wished to transfer the functions of the Model
Grammar School to Upper Canada College.
This was not agreed to, but the same year pro
vision was made for admitting candidates for
Grammar School masterships to a course in
training in the Model Grammar School. Up
to this time the School had been of profes
sional service as a school of observation, the
holidays being so arranged that its classes were
in session while Grammar School masters were
on holiday.

* See Report of Superintendent for 1859.

244

Ryerson and the Training of Teachers

In July, 1863, the Model Grammar School
was finally closed. The following from a letter
sent by Ryerson to the Provincial Secretary
makes clear the reasons for this action : " When
the Model Grammar School was established it
was expected that nearly every county in Upper
Canada would be represented in it and pro
vision was made for that purpose. That im
portant object has not been realized; and
although the attendance at the school has been
larger during the last year than during any
previous year, reaching even to 100, the attend
ance as in former years has been chiefly from
Toronto and its neighbourhood. I do not think
it just to the General Fund to maintain an
additional Toronto Grammar School. During
the past year a training class for Grammar
School masterships, consisting to a consider
able extent of students in the University, has
been successfully established. But it has been
found that the instruction in all subjects, ex
cept Greek, Latin, and French, can be given in
the Normal School to better advantage than in
the Model Grammar School."*

Trained teachers for the Grammar Schools
were much to be desired, and Ryerson deserves
credit for his progressive ideas. But just at
that stage in their evolution, although they con
tained many scholarly men, the Grammar
Schools as a whole were more in need of

* See Ryerson s letter in D. H. E., Vol. XVIIL, p. 69.

245

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

teachers with sound scholarship than of
teachers with a little professional training.

There continued to be complaints that
teachers trained in the Normal Schools did not
continue to teach. In his Report for 1856,
Ryerson makes clear that in his opinion these
defections from the teaching ranks were no
condemnation of Normal Schools. He says :
The only objection yet made to the training
of teachers, as far as I know, is that many of
them do not pursue that profession but leave
it for other employments. Were this true to
the full extent imagined, the conclusion would
still be in favour of the Normal School, since
its advantages are not confined to schools or
neighbourhoods in which its teachers are em
ployed, but are extended over other neigh
bourhoods and municipalities.. . In all pro
fessions and pursuits there are changes from
one to another. I do not think it wise, just, or
expedient to deny to the Normal School teacher
the liberty, if opportunity presents itself, to
improve his position or increase his usefulness.
... In whatever position or relation of life a
Normal School teacher may be placed, his
training at the Normal School cannot fail to
contribute to his usefulness."*

Nor was all the criticism of Normal School
affairs directed towards the teachers who left

* See Report of Chief Superintendent for 1856. See
copy in D. H. E., Vol. XIII., p. 51.

246

Ryerson and the Training of Teachers

the profession; those who remained in it were
emissaries of evil. Then, as now, there were
croakers who thought that a boy born on a
farm naturally belonged there, and that any
enlightenment which tended to make him dis
satisfied with his surroundings was an evil.
One, signing himself Angus Dallas of Toronto,
wrote several pamphlets attacking the school
system. Speaking of the Normal School, he
said : " The young men who have attended six
months at that institution and leave it with
certificates to teach, go forth into the country
with the most mistaken estimate of their own
importance. They open schools wherever
accident places them, and by teaching and
familiar intercourse, combined with the ex
ample of nomadic habits, for they seldom
remain longer than twelve months in one place,
they soon contaminate the minds of the older
pupils and also of young men who may reside
in the neighbourhood, by their doctrines of
enlightened citizenship; and thus these pupils
soon learn to disdain honest labour."*

In 1855, the Legislature had authorized a
museum and library in connection with the

* The Toronto schools were at this time very expensively
managed as compared with schools in other cities of Upper
Canada. This could not be attributed to the expense of
Normal-trained teachers. In 1858, ten years after the
Normal School was established, no Common School in
Toronto was in charge of a Normal-trained teacher, and
only two or three such teachers had ever been employed
there. See D. H. E., Vol. XIII., p. 299.

247

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

Department of Education. These were for
mally opened in 1857 and the library con
tributed much to increase the efficiency of the
Normal School by widening the scope of the
students reading.

In the following year the Council of Public
Instruction revised the Normal School Regula
tions. Qualifications necessary for admission
were accurately set forth and the course of
study defined for both second and first-class
certificates. There continued to be two ses
sions a year, but students who entered to
qualify for a second-class certificate spent two
or more sessions before reaching a standard
entitling them to a first-class certificate.

An interesting sidelight is thrown upon the
nature of the instruction given in the Toronto
Normal School by the Report for 1868 of
George Paxton Young, Inspector of Grammar
Schools. Young was trying to raise the
standard of the Grammar Schools, and shows
how their improvement would affect the
Normal Schools. He says : " I suppose there
can be no doubt that if High Schools like those
which I have described were established, it
would be necessary to modify the work of the
Normal School considerably. Teachers who
would have to perform different duties from
what have hitherto been expected at their hands
would need a different training from what has

248

Ryerson and the Training of Teachers

hitherto been given. The instructions in
English in the Normal School would require
to be raised to a far higher level than is now
aimed at. Much of the elementary drilling
which Normal School students at present
receive might be dispensed with. Our insti
tution for the training of teachers ought not
to be a school for teaching English grammar.
In the same way I would lighten the ship of
such subjects as the bare facts of geography
and history; not rejecting of course prelec
tions on the proper method of teaching geo
graphy arid history. The English master in
the Normal School might thus be enabled to
devote a portion of his time to lessons in the
English language and literature of a superior
cast lessons which he would have a pride in
giving and on which the students would feel it
a privilege to wait. Such lessons would be
immensely useful even to those young men and
women who might only desire to qualify them
selves for becoming Common School teachers.
In the department of physical science, it is plain
that if the views which I have expressed in
regard to the way in which science should be
taught in the High Schools be just, the object
of the prelections in the Normal School should
not be to cram the students with a mass of
facts but to develop in them a philosophic habit
of mind and to make them practically under-

249

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

stand how classes in science ought to be con
ducted in the schools."*

No man in Canada was better qualified to
estimate the real work of any educational
establishment than Young, and although he
was not closely connected with the Normal
School, we may assume that his analysis was
essentially correct and that the study of formal
grammar and the acquisition of scientific facts
bulked large in the Normal School programme.
In his report for 1867,! in speaking of the Nor
mal and Model Schools, Ryerson says : They
are not constituted as are most of the Normal
Schools in both Europe and America to impart
the preliminary education requisite for teach
ing. That preparatory education is supposed
to have been attained in the ordinary public
or private schools. The entrance examination
to the Normal School requires this. The object
of the Normal and Model Schools is, therefore,
to do for the teacher what an apprenticeship
does for the mechanic, the artist, the physician,
the lawyer to teach him theoretically and
practically how to do the work of his profes
sion."

A little consideration will show us that a
school trying to realize such an aim and at
tempting to teach only the rudiments of the
science of education, upon which the theory of

* See D. H. E., Vol. XX., p. 127.
t See D. H. E., Vol. XX., p. 139.

250

Ryerson and the Training of Teachers

teaching is based, must become empirical and
rule-of -thumb in its methods. The real diffi
culty lay in the inadequate preparation with
which the teachers in training entered upon
their work. The Normal School could not im
prove until an improvement should be effected
in the Grammar Schools.

During the first nine sessions of the Normal
School no certificates were granted which en
titled the holder to teach. The Normal School
graduates simply received certificates of attend
ance and had to submit to examination by a
County Board before securing a license. It
almost invariably happened that Normal School
graduates were able to take a high standing at
these examinations, and hence Ryerson met
with no serious opposition from County Boards
when in 1853 he proposed to issue Provincial
certificates to Normal School graduates upon
the recommendation of the Normal School
masters. From 1853 to 1871 a dual system of
granting certificates was in operation. Normal
School graduates received Provincial certifi
cates of various grades, and County Boards
issued certificates valid only in the county
where issued. In 1871 a radical change was
made, by which County Boards were allowed
to issue only third-class certificates valid for
three years in the county where given, and
renewable on the recommendation of the
County Inspector. Second and first-class cer-

251

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

tificates were granted only by the Department
of Education and valid during good behaviour,
and in any part of the Province. A first-class
certificate of the highest grade (Grade "A")
was made the qualification for County Inspec
tors. It should also be noted that the third-
class certificates referred to above were granted
after 1871 only upon the passing of a written
examination upon papers prepared by a cen
tral committee chosen by the Council of Public
Instruction. This was a radical change from
the old method, which allowed each County
Board to fix its own standard, a plan which
necessarily led to many certificates being
granted to wholly incompetent persons.

The change of 1871, which virtually estab
lished a Provincial system of licensing teachers,
brought upon Ryerson s head much abuse from
incompetent teachers and their friends. The
Superintendent stood firmly by his guns, know
ing well that his act was in the best interests
of the Province. A few words from his reply
to those who objected that old teachers were
being set aside because of failure to pass the
Provincial examination is worth mentioning.
He says : I answer, as government exists not
for office-holders but for the people, so the
school exists not for the teachers but for the
youth and future generations of the land ; and
if teachers have been too slothful not to keep
pace with the progressive wants and demands

252

Ryerson and the Training of Teachers

of the country, they must, as should all incom
petent and indolent public officers, and all lazy
and unenterprising citizens, give place to the
more industrious, intelligent, progressive, and
enterprising. The sound education of a gener
ation of children is not to be sacrificed for the
sake of an incompetent although antiquated
teacher."*

Having secured the adoption of a system by
which all licensing of teachers was under De
partmental control, Ryerson next turned his
attention to an extension of facilities for train
ing teachers. His plans were comprehensive
and had to wait thirty-five years for complete
realization. In 1872! he reported to the Pro
vincial Treasurer as follows : " I desire to state
in reply that last year I thought and suggested
to the Government that two additional Normal
Schools were required, one in the eastern and
the other in the western section of the Province,
but I am now inclined to think that three addi
tional Normal Schools will be required to
extend the advantages of a Normal School
training to all parts of the Province one at
London, one at Kingston, and one at Ottawa.
If provision be not made to establish them all
at once, I think the first established should be
at Ottawa the centre of a large region of
country where the schools are in a compara-

* See copy of Report in D. H. E., Vol. XIII., p. 131.
t See D. H. E., Vol. XXIV., p. 22.

253

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

tively backward state, and where the influence
of the Normal School training for teachers has
yet been scarcely felt except in a few towns,
and which is almost entirely separated from
Toronto in all branches of business and com
merce, and therefore, to a great extent, in social
relations and sympathies. ... As the
whole Province east of Belleville is less ad
vanced and less progressive in schools than the
western parts, I think a second Normal School
should be established at Kingston. The whole
region of country from Belleville, on the west,
to Brockville, on the east, has very little more
business or commercial connection with To
ronto than the more eastern parts of the Pro
vince. Although London is not so remote
from Toronto as Ottawa or Kingston, yet it
is the centre of a populous and prosperous part
of the Province from which an ample number
of student teachers would be collected to fill
any Normal School. . . . With the estab
lishment of these three Normal Schools I am
persuaded there would still be as large a num
ber of student teachers attending the Toronto
School as can advantageously be trained in one
institution. ... I think all the Normal
Schools, should be subject to the oversight of
the Education Department and under the same
regulations formally sanctioned by the Lieuten-
ant-Governor-in-Council. This I think neces
sary on the grounds of both economy and uni-

254

Ryerson and the Training of Teachers

formity of standard and system of instruction.
As to the extent of accommodation in each
Normal School, I think that provision should
be made for training 150 teachers in each
school."

In the meantime, while negotiations for more
Normal School accommodation were in pro
gress, an attempt was made to give some
professional training through teachers insti
tutes. As far back as 1850 the Legislature had
made a grant for such meetings, and they had
been conducted by the Normal School masters.
In 1872 the plan was revised and some very
successful institutes held. The movement is
important because out of it grew County Model
Schools, and the adoption of a principle which
meant some professional training for every
teacher.

In 1875, a Normal School was opened at
Ottawa, but the plan of having schools at King
ston and London was abandoned largely be
cause of the apathy of the Legislature in regard
to the expense. In fact it is doubtful if any
Government could have forced through the
Legislature a vote for such a purpose.

Ryerson found the schools in 1844 taught
by teachers without certificates and without
professional training; he left them in 1876 with
teachers, all of whom were certificated under
Government examinations, and many of whom
were Normal-trained. More important still,

255

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

he had, by his lectures at County Conventions
and by his writings in the Journal of Educa
tion, created a sentiment throughout the Pro
vince in favour of trained teachers. He thus
made easy the pathway of his successors in
securing increased efficiency; but it may be
doubted whether any of his immediate success
ors achieved results in keeping with the material
advance of the Province.

256

CHAPTER XL

RYERSON SCHOOL BILL OF 1871.

FROM 1850 to 1871 no wholly new principles
relating to the Common Schools were adopted
by the Legislature, although some changes were
necessarily made. The legislation of 1850 had,
from time to time, to be supplemented by
amendments in order that the spirit of the pre
vious legislation should be made applicable to
the needs of a rapidly growing community.

An Act passed in 1853 * provided further
machinery for the working of Trustee Boards ;
gave a liberal annual grant for an educational
museum ; set apart 500 a year toward teachers
pensions, and increased by 1,000 a year the
grant to Normal Schools.

An Act passed in 1860 f more clearly defined
the powers of trustees, the manner of conduct
ing elections, and auditing school accounts.
The same Act made Saturday a school holiday.

The Act of 1871 J was the last important

* See copy of Act reprinted in D. H. E., Vol. X., p. 133.

t See copy of Act reprinted in D. H. E., Vol. XV., pp.
45-49-

% See copy of Act reprinted in D. H. E., Vol. XXII., pp.
213-222.

17 257

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

school legislation prepared by Ryerson.* The
important features of the Act may be summed
up under four headings, viz., compulsory and
free education, efficient inspection, teachers
pensions, and the licensing of teachers under
Government direction, f

The free school was the natural complement
of the Act of 1850. The permissive legislation
then enacted allowing trustee boards and rate
payers to establish free schools had been so
generally acted uponj that by 1871 the aboli
tion of all rate bills upon parents seemed to
come as a matter of course. The logical cor
ollary of free schools is compulsory attendance,
and the Act of 1871 fixed penalties to be im
posed upon parents and guardians who neg
lected the education of their children. It may
be doubted whether this compulsory clause has
ever been of any real advantage to the cause
of education. The real forces that move human
beings are always moral forces. Many a man
has unwillingly sent his children to school be
cause of public opinion, but few because of
fear of the law.

* The Act of 1874, in as far as it contained new prin
ciples, was forced upon Ryerson by the Government of
Sir Oliver Mowat.

t For changes made in Grammar Schools by Act of 1871,
see Chapter IX.

$ Only some 400 schools out of 4,000 were levying rate
bills in 1870. These 400 were chiefly in towns and cities.
The total rate bill levy for 1870 was about $24,000. See
Superintendent s Report for 1870.

258

Ryerson School Bill of 1871

The Act provided for county inspectors who
should be experts and devote their whole time
to the work of inspection. Ryerson s first Re
port had foreshadowed such action, and the
fact that he had to wait a quarter-century to
realize his plan shows how impossible it is to
legislate much in advance of public opinion.

The County Inspector, together with two or
more qualified teachers, were to form a County
Board, with power to license second and third-
class teachers upon examinations prescribed by
the Council of Public Instruction. In this way
the Superintendent had at last secured a uni
form standard of qualification for teachers
throughout the whole Province.

The small annual grant made for teachers
pensions in 1853, and increased a few years
later to $4,000 per annum, had enabled the
Superintendent to dole out pittances * to a few
score of worn-out teachers whose need was
most pressing. Ryerson wished to establish a
system such as was in operation in Germany
a system of compulsory payments by teachers
in service sufficient to give a substantial pension
for old age. He hoped by this means to secure
a body of teachers with a professional spirit,
and to enable them to spend their declining
years in independence.

The Act of 1871 required compulsory pay
ments from male teachers of four dollars per

*See D.H.E., Vol. XX., p. 143.

259

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

year.* At a later date County Inspectors and
all first-class teachers were required to pay six
dollars a year. This payment guaranteed an
annual pension upon retirement of four or six
dollars for every year s contribution. Female
teachers were allowed, but not forced, to sup
port the Pension Fund. The compulsory pay
ments aroused much opposition from some
teachers, especially those who were making
temporary use of the teachers calling as a step
ping-stone to some other profession.! Ryer
son thought that this class might very properly
be taxed a trifle for the general cause of edu
cation.

Minor provisions of the Act of 1871 gave
trustee boards power to build teachers resi
dences and to secure land for school sites by
arbitration. The Act also authorized the crea
tion of Township Boards of Trustees, where
public opinion favoured them.

During its passage through the Legislature
the Bill of 1871 was severely criticized by Hon.
George Brown, in the Toronto Globe, and by
Edward Blake, on the floor of the Assembly.

* No doubt this seems a ridiculously small contribution,
but we must remember that teachers received very small
salaries. The Pension Fund clause was repealed in 1885
on request of the teachers of Ontario, and since that date
no names have been added to the list. The payments
by teachers provided only a small proportion of the annual
charge upon the Pension Fund. The present annual charge
(1910) upon the Fund is $55,926.

t See D. H. E., Vol. XXIII., pp. 253-256.

260

Ryerson School Bill of 1871

Perhaps neither of these gentlemen had any
love for Ryerson, but they represented a new
spirit which Ryerson scarcely understood, and
with which he certainly had no sympathy.

Mr. Blake opposed the Bill upon several
grounds, but especially upon the abolition of
rate bills and the irresponsible nature of the
Council of Public Instruction. As regards the
former he expressed himself heartily in favour
of free schools, but since they were gradually
becoming free without compulsion he wished
to let them alone. His objection to the Council
of Public Instruction * is worthy of note be
cause it brings out in a strong light the real
bone of contention between Ryerson and the
Ontario Liberals, and enables us to understand
why at a later date it was impossible for Ryer
son to work in harmony with a Liberal Execu
tive Council. The Council of Public Instruction
was an irresponsible body appointed by the
Crown and dominated by the Chief Superin
tendent. It had extensive powers. It might
act arbitrarily, and yet there was no way by
which the members of the Legislature could
call it to account or insist upon explanations.
Mr. Blake and his colleagues argued that this
was not compatible with representative govern
ment. Doctor Ryerson insisted that the Edu
cation Department must be wholly removed

* See Pamphlet in Parliamentary Library, Ottawa, ad
dressed by Edward Blake to the electors of South Bruce.

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

from party politics. Conscious of purity of
purpose and personal integrity, he was ever
more desirous of giving the people what he
thought they needed than of giving them what
they wanted.

Although Ryerson had taken a partisan s
part in politics before his appointment as
Superintendent, he wisely tried to administer
his Department upon a non-partisan basis. And
he met with a large measure of success because
all sensible men realized that education ought
not to be a topic for partisan bickerings. For
many years it was so arranged that the leader
of the Government introduced educational bills
and the leader of the Opposition seconded
them.

Such a procedure was possible only so long
as both political parties had more confidence
in the wisdom of the Superintendent to deal
with education than they had in the educational
foresight of their own leaders. But such a
confidence could not be indefinitely retained by
any Superintendent, and certainly not by Ryer
son, who was very sensitive to criticism of his
administration, and always ready to challenge
any layman who had the temerity to express
an opinion upon education contrary to his. It
was inevitable that a clash should come, and it
was a great tribute to Ryerson s wisdom in
gauging public opinion that the clash was so
long delayed. It was also quite to be expected

262

Ryerson School Bill of 1871

that the Liberal leaders should be the ones to
precipitate the shock, seeing that Ryerson had
ridden into office upon a wave of Tory reaction.
Mr. Blake and Hon. George Brown could,
however, make little headway against Ryerson
in connection with the School Bill of 1871.
Except in regard to the irresponsible nature of
the Council of Public Instruction, the Act was
progressive and truly liberal. Ryerson had dis
cussed every clause in the Bill at County Con
ventions, and had behind him the support of
all actively engaged in the work of education
and in the other learned professions.

263

CHAPTER XII.

CONCLUSION.

How are we to sum up the work of this man
who moulded the schools of Ontario during a
period as long as the life of a single genera
tion? Would the schools of 1876 have been
what they were had there been no Ryerson?
We think not.

No doubt the people of Upper Canada would,
without Ryerson, have worked out a good
school system, because a school system must in
the end reflect the average intelligence and the
fixed ideals of a people. But in Ryerson, Upper
Canada had a man who, by his dogged deter
mination and his hold upon the affections of
the people, was able to secure legislation some
what in advance of a fixed public opinion. To
a considerable extent he created the public senti
ment which made his work possible. He knew
what the people needed and persuaded them
to accept it. This we conceive to be the work
of a statesman.

Ryerson was neither a demagogue nor a
constitutionalist. He had none of the arts
of one who wins the populace by flattering its
vanity. He was too sincere and too deeply

264

Conclusion

religious to appeal to the lower springs of
human action. On the other hand he had no
real sympathy with popular government. He
would let people do as they wished, only so
.long as they wished to do what he believed to
be right. He never could believe that he him
self might be wrong. Even had he wished. to
do so, he never could have divested himself
wholly of the character of priest and pedagogue.
He was always either shouting from the pulpit
or thumping the desk of the schoolmaster.

His environment after 1844 strengthened
and developed his natural tendency to be auto
cratic. He worked like a giant. He created
the Education Department, appointed his sub
ordinates, was his own finance minister, estab
lished a Normal School and appointed its in
structors, nominated members of a Council of
Public Instruction who often did little more
than formally register his decrees, organized
a book and map depository and an educational
museum, edited an educational journal in which
he published his decrees, and prepared legisla
tion for successive Legislatures having com
paratively few members competent to criticize
school administration. He administered one of
the largest spending Departments of Govern
ment, and ruled somewhat rigorously a score of
subordinates, and yet, for many years, was not
subject to any check except the nominal one

265

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

of the Governor-General, and later of the Gov-
ernor-General-in-Council.

When he visited District or County Con
ventions he came as a lawgiver, either to ex
plain existing regulations, promulgate new
ones, or obtain assent to those for which he
wished to secure legislation. Only after the
Grammar Schools had become efficient did
Ryerson meet at Teachers Conventions men
who were intellectually his equals and who were
ready to criticize his policy, and, when neces
sary, give him wholesome advice. Had Ryer
son been a responsible Minister with a seat in
the Legislature, either his nature would have
been modified or he would have failed, prob
ably the latter.

This would seem to lead to the conclusion
that Ryerson after all was not a statesman, since
a statesman must, in our age, carry out his
measures and at the same time retain the con
fidence of his colleagues and the electors. But
this is just what Ryerson did, although he did
not do it directly through the Legislature. He
appealed to a Court beyond the Legislature
the whole body of intelligent men and women
of Upper Canada and this Court sustained
him in his work for thirty-two years, during
which time it is doubtful if any single constitu
ency in the country would have elected him to
two successive Parliaments. If this be true
we may safely assume that it was a happy

266

Conclusion

chance which gave us a non-political Education
Department during our formative period.

Ryerson s greatest admirers can scarcely
claim that he was a scholar. This was his
misfortune and not his fault. He never failed
to embrace whatever opportunities for intellec
tual improvement came in his way. His read
ing of history was broad and discriminating.
He had little interest in anything that did not
bear somewhat directly upon the problem of
human virtue. Consequently his interests cen
tred largely in civil government and theology.

Nor can we claim for Ryerson that he intro
duced original legislation. Hardly anything
in our system of education was of his inven
tion. New England, New York, Germany, and
Ireland gave him his models, and his genius
was shown in the skill with which he adapted
these to suit the needs of Upper Canada. Even
in the details of his school legislation, espe
cially that relating to High Schools, Ryerson
adopted suggestions of men more competent
than himself to form a judgment. To say this
in no way detracts from the man s greatness.
Little after all in modern legislation is actually
new, and to say of a man that he is successful
in using other men s ideas is often to give him
the highest praise.

In one department of work Ryerson stood
in a class by himself. He was without a peer
as an administrator. His intensely practical

267

Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

mind was quick to discover the shortest route
between end and means. His energy, his sys
tem and attention to details, his broad personal
knowledge of actual conditions, his capacity
for long periods of effort, his thrift, his cour
teous treatment of subordinates, and even his
sensitiveness to criticism were factors which
enabled him to administer the most difficult
Department of the Government with ease and
smoothness.

The history of Upper Canada during a
period of nearly sixty years is as much bound
up with the labours of Egerton Ryerson as
with the work of any other public man. He
gave us lofty ideals of the meaning and pur
pose of life, and he had an abiding faith in the
power of popular education to aid in a realiza
tion of these ideals; he fought for free schools
in Upper Canada when they needed a valiant
champion. Let the present generation of men
and women honour the memory of the man
who wrought so faithfully for their fathers
and grandfathers.

268

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada.
28 vols. Dr. J. Geo. Hodgins.

Story of My Life. Egerton Ryerson. Edited by Dr.
J. Geo. Hodgins.

Egerton Ryerson. Chancellor Burwash.
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Ryerson Memorial Volume. Edited by Dr. J. Geo.
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History of Upper Canada College. Principal Dickson.

Journals of Assembly of Upper Canada, Legislative
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Journal of Education, 1848-1876. 29 vols. Library of
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Ryerson s Special Reports on European Schools. Li
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Ryerson s Annual School Reports, 1845-1876. Library
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Sketches of Canada and the United States. William
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269

Bibliography

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270

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PERSON POLYTECHN1CAL INSTITUTE

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